Hybrid
by Naomao
Summary: What if Isshin and Masaki's relationship was just a one night stand? What would happen of Ichigo once Masaki died? Would Karin and Yuzu ever be born? If so, to whom? Would growing up in an entire different way make Ichigo's powers surface differently? Who knows? Well, I do, but that would be spoilers. No Dark Ichigo. Weekly updates coming daily. (Yes, I know.)
1. Chapter 1

**NEW STORY!**

 **I already explained why I'm now writing two stories at the same time so if you want to know why just look at the A/N on my other story, on there I also explained what the frequency of the updates should be so you can also learn that there.**

 **Please tell me how you feel about the first chapter, although if you're just gonna flame me, there's no need, unless you actually have decent criticism.**

 **I don't know what the pairings will be, if there are any, for this story there definitely won't be a harem, I can tell you that much, although if there is a pairing it'll most likely be Ichigo x Yoruichi, although I don't feel like having to write romance, at all, so no promises.**

 **Anyways, without further ado,**

 **LEGO!:**

"Talking"

'Thinking'

 **"Demon/Hollow talking"**

 **'Demon/Hollow thinking"**

 _"Spirit Talking"_

'Spirit thinking'

 **Disclaimer: Don't own Bleach.**

* * *

It was a rainy night, with cliches looming above the citizens of Karakura Town like the clouds that darkened the skies. When Isshin Shiba, Captain of Squad 10 of the Gotei 13, fell by the hands of the oddest hollow he had ever seen in his life. It looked so much like a human that, if it weren't for the fact that he was looking at it straight in the eyes, that it had a hollow hole and mask, and a presence that would make anybody under a captain run like a scared schoolgirl, he wouldn't even think it was a hollow, but it definitely was a hollow, the one that he had now accepted would end his life, 'Damn, limiter, if it weren't for that stupid thing I would have kicked this stupid hollow's ass six ways to Sunday.' Isshin thought bitterly as he stared at his executioner, he couldn't believe it, his life would end because of a goddamn limiter, he didn't deserve to die like this, he would have accepted it fine had he fought the hollow at full power and still lost, but his powers were bound, he couldn't do anything, but he accepted it. There was no point in dying, his mind clouded with anger and regrets, so he closed his eyes, and allowed a small smirk to play on his lips, but the ending never came, instead, he heard the sound of something _swooshing_ by him, and the sound of the hollow he had been fighting scream in pain, he opened his eyes and looked at the person that had saved his life, only for his breath to hitch at what he saw.

It was undeniably the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his entire life, with short- down to her shoulders- orange hair, she was of average height and had fair skin, he couldn't keep his eyes off her, which she seemed to notice, as she seemed smirked playfully and winked at him, "W-who are you?" he asked once she got closer to him.

"My name is Masaki Kurosaki, a Quincy." she stated calmly, her playful smirk now a kind one, "I'm guessing you're a shinigami?"

"Yes." he said, getting up, "But, although I do appreciate the help, why did you save me? Shouldn't your kind hate us?" he questioned, almost apologising when her perfect face was stained by a small, but noticeable, frown, because of his question.

"Yes, most quincies would say that, but I couldn't live with myself if I let somebody die because of some age old feud, or because of a family matter." she responded.

"Ahh, okay-"

"Watch out!" she yelled pushing him out the way as the hollow, who Isshin had totally forgotten about, leapt back at them, crashing into Masaki since she had pushed Isshin out the way, Isshin looked at her in shock as the hollow seemingly mauled at her.

"That won't work, hollow," she said calmly, her playful demeanour gone, as she raised her bow to the hollow's temple, "My blut is the strongest, and last, you'll ever see." she finished as she fired the arrow to the hollow's head, causing a massive explosion, once the explosion cleared, Isshin approached it, hoping to find the Quincy, which he did.

"Oops, seems I was a bit careless in thinking the explosion wouldn't affect me." she said in a playful tone as Isshin gaped at her, the explosion had indeed affected her, but not in the way he would think it had, instead, most of her clothing had been burned off, leaving her in what could basically be described as her undergarments, Isshin, ever-the-gentleman, averted his eyes from the beauty out of respect for her, only to hear her giggling.

"Oh come on, no need to freak out like that. It's just a bit of skin. What's your name?" she asked.

"Isshin Shiba." he told her, his hand still covering his face.

"Well, Isshin-kun, I don't think I'll be able to show myself at home like this, especially not after the stunt I pulled to get out of there, so how about you be a gentleman and help me find a place to sleep for tonight?" she asked-or told- him, her playful tone back.

'I need to get back to Soul Society, but I can't just leave her here after what she did for me... ahhh, one night can't hurt.' Isshin told himself, "Uhh, sure, but I'll need a gigai if you want me to help you out."

"Oh, that's not a problem, I know an ex-shinigami that could help you out, Urahara... Kisuke? Yeah, that's him, he owns a shop in Karakura where you could get a gigai." she explained.

'Kisuke? He's in Karakura? Oh well, guess there's no other place I could get one...', "Sure, just wait here a minute." he said as he vanished, leaving Masaki alone.

"I sure do hope he comes back...it would be a shame for him to leave me all alone here, and he's so cute!" she giggled to herself.

* * *

 ** _The Next Morning..._**

'Ughh, what the hell happened...' Isshin questioned, to himself, as he opened his eyes, only to see a white sealing, 'Where am I?' he questioned again, only for him to almost jump out of the bed as he heard another person breathing, more looking into who that person was and he could also feel whoever it was, was pressed up against him, was female, and was _naked,_ If the... _assets..._ he could feel pressed up against his chest were anything to go by. He diverted his gaze from the ceiling to the person who was by his side, his widening in shock when he saw who it was, 'Masaki...' he realised, 'Damn it Isshin! What kind of stupid ass bullshit did I get myself into again? Fuuuuuuck...' he thought in self-misery, 'I can't let Soul Society know of this, we're not allowed to have _any_ form of contact with humans, much less Quincies, much less _this,_ although it is very enjoyable.' he thought as he got up, careful not to wake the beauty in his bed up, exited himself from his body and with a small Kido, and burned his gigai, 'I'm sorry, Masaki.' he thought sadly as he took one last look at her, and left through the Senkaimon he had just opened.

Minutes later, the sleeping beauty stirred awake, rubbing her eyes of the drowsiness, 'I feel like something is missing...' she thought as she stretched on the bed, 'Oh! Isshin!' she thought as she looked around, 'Where is he?' she questioned as she tried to call out his name, "Isshin-kun!" nothing. She lied back down in her bed, tears threatening to fall out her eyes, 'I won't cry because of this. I'm sure Isshin just had to go back to Soul Society, he has responsibilities as a captain, this was just a one... night... thing...' she thought sadly as she wiped a tear from her eye, 'Damn it Masaki! This isn't worth crying over! Get over yourself!' she thought, a bit of determination back, as she sat up and went to take a shower in the hotel room they had rented, 'I'll get over this, I'll be fine.'

* * *

 ** _3 Weeks Later..._**

It had been three weeks since Masaki's little fling with Isshin, and she had gotten over it pretty well, after the fact she had simply gone back to her house, gotten scolded for leaving the way she did and not having come back until the day after, came up with an excuse, and gone back to normal life. Yes, she had gotten over Isshin. But that wasn't exactly what she was thinking as she dry-heaved above the toilet seat, her stomach having already purged her of all the food in it, 'What the hell is wrong with me? There's no reason for me to be this sick, Quincies don't get sick that easily, so what could be causing this... unless...' her eyes widened in shock at even the thought of it, 'But there's no other way... nothing else could cause this.' she thought as she finally stopped dry-heaving and sat up, 'I need to be sure of this before I tell anybody.'

"Masaki, are you alright? Do you need us to get a doctor for you?" Ryuuken asked worriedly from behind the door.

"No! No! It's fine Ryu-kun! Just ate something bad is all!" she said cheerfully as she opened the door to face the young master.

"Really? If that is the case I will go punish whichever cook gave you that." he told her, before she grabbed her hand.

"No, really it's fine, don't worry about it. Anyways, I'm going out to get something! Be back later!" she said as she rushed down the stairs and out the doors.

* * *

 ** _A couple hours later..._**

'Please don't be positive, please don't be positive, please don't positive...' Masaki continued to chant to herself, her hand covering her eyes from seeing the result of the pregnancy test she had just taken, 'No! Stop this! You're better than this Masaki! If it's positive then it's positive and I'll face the consequences of it!' she thought with a new-born determination as she took her hand of her eyes, only for said hand to go to her mouth as a silent gasp escaped her lips, for on the pregnancy was only shown one sign and that was the sign for:

Positive.

* * *

 _ **A couple hours and explanations later...**_

"I can't believe you've done this Masaki! With a Shinigami no less! Do you have any idea how many values of ours you have gone against with your little stunt!? And a child?! Of a shinigami! I can't believe you!" Mrs. Ishida yelled at Masaki, who had her head down, twiddling with her thumbs, "Look at me you insolent girl!" she said as she took Masaki face in her hand, making her stand up face to face, and screamed at her, "I'm tired of you and your irresponsibleness! I've had it with you! This was the last straw! OUT!" she screamed as she threw Masaki back, nearly tripping her, had Ryuuken not been there to pick her up.

"That is enough mother! I will not let you keep doing this anymore! Masaki realises the error of what she has done and regrets it, there is nothing else we can do. Please calm down and let us discuss this like civilised people." Ryuuken said as he helped Masaki up, Mrs. Ishida, however, didn't seem to want to listen.

"No! I refuse to deal with this insolent pest anymore! Get her out of this house at once!" she yelled, Ryuuken opened his mouth to protest, before he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.

"Thank you Ryuuken, but it's fine, I've caused enough trouble already for this family and I agree with Mrs. Ishida that I should leave." she said, her voice emotionless as she bowed, "I am sorry for all the trouble I have caused the Ishida family! I can only hope that my promise to leave you in peace is enough to satisfy you!" she exclaimed as she kept her tears from falling, Mrs. Ishida simply scoffed.

"That's right girl, leave. We don't want to see you anymore." she said coldly, prompting Masaki to walk out of the room, closing the door gently, before running all the way out the mansion and into the streets, illuminated by the lamp posts.

"Masaki wait!" Ryuuken yelled, "See what you have done mother! I cannot believe you!" Ryuuken exclaimed frustratingly as he ran after the young girl.

"Masaki, wait!" Ryuuken yelled as he finally caught up to the girl, she turned around, tears falling down her face, making Ryuuken regret what was happening even more, "I'm sorry for mother's behaviour, I am sure she will get over it, but please, you don't have to leave-" he argued, before he was cut off by a finger on his lips, Masaki looking at him with a kind smile, although tears were still staining her face.

"It's okay, Ryu-kun, I'll find a way to deal with this, Mrs. Ishida is right, I've burdened you guys long enough and I won't accept that you take care of me and my child on top of that, he's my responsibility and I'll take care of him as such. I'll find a way to deal with this, don't worry." she told him, wrapping her arms around him in a hug, "Thank you, thank you for everything. Ryu-kun." she said as she buried her head in his chest, Ryuuken, at first too shocked to hug back, did after a couple seconds, tears threatening to fall down his own face, she broke the hug after a minute, "Besides, I'm sure we'll see each other again." she said as she turned around, "Goodbye, Ryu-kun!" she said as she disappeared using the Quincies own high-speed technique, leaving Ryuuken alone, under the just now starting rain.

"Goodbye, Masaki."

* * *

She kept running, without looking back, as much as she didn't care at all for Mrs. Ishida, she did care for some of the maids, and Ryuuken, so she couldn't afford even the slightest of hesitations, lest she break down crying, which she couldn't afford right now, she had to build a new life, one where she, and her child, would be safe, and she didn't have but the slightest clue on how to make that happen, but for now she could settle with finding a place to stay at. Something was bothering her though, she could feel her heart, beating at new speeds, speeds she had never felt before, but she could also feel the beat of something else inside her, the beating of what, she didn't know, but it felt sinister, dark.

All of the sudden, she stopped running as a pain, greater than any pain she had ever felt, found itself in the middle of her chest, a pain so great she couldn't even cry out, only crumple to the floor in silent agony, she had no clue what was going on, the pain was too great for her to even form coherent thoughts, much less move. She looked back down at where the pain was originating from, only to be shocked when she saw a hole, similar to a hollow's, had started developing in the middle of her chest. How could this happen? She didn't have any reason to be turning into a hollow, what could possibly be causing this... Unless, the hollow she had saved Isshin from had made contact with her, but she was confident her blut had protected her, was she wrong? Had the hollow bit her? If so, she had no doubt she would die, hollow reiryoku was like poison to Quincies, there was no way she could survive this unless she got some help from somebody who knew what he was doing, and it seemed that the gods were shining on her that day, at least as much as they could be by now. Because somebody did happen to be around to help her, somebody in the form of a tall, lanky man with sandy blonde hair, a straw hat and an annoying ass attitude. The pain had somewhat dulled down, so, with her last breath before falling into unconsciousness she whispered, "Urahara Kisuke..."

* * *

 ** _Urahara Shoten..._**

"This is definitely most interesting... A Quincy, who has developed a hollow hole, and is pregnant with a child who has Quincy and shinigami reiryoku... definitely interesting, if not terrifying..." Urahara muttered to himself as he looked and analysed the unconscious body of who he knew, from his own knowledge-spying- to be Masaki Kurosaki, a quincy who had been adopted by the Ishida family, a family of quincies, the last one of them, "I wonder where the child could be getting his shinigami side from... although I already have a guess!~" he continued, "But onto more pressing matters... how to save this young lady and her child, hmmm, I wonder..." he went on with his analyse, now seemingly typing gibberish into his computer, when something most... _interesting..._ happened, all the hollow reiryoku that Mrs. Kurosaki was leaking, and her hollow hole, disappeared, "Hmm, what has happened here...~" He could now feel that all the hollow reiryoku was going towards the Quincy's stomach, and that where the hollow reiryoku was going, shinigami reiryoku was flowing out of, "It seems that Mrs. Kurosaki is stabilizing, also that the natural behaviour of a fetus towards it's creator has decided that the only way to save her would be by absorbing the hollow reiryoku in her and sending shinigami reiryoku to heal her, thus making the fetus not only have Quincy and Shinigami reiryoku, but also hollow reiryoku, perfectly healthy thanks to the shinigami side protecting the quincy side from what would normally kill all quincies, hollow reiryoku, and also saving Mrs. Kurosaki by purging the hollow reiryoku from her system, the shinigami reiryoku also seems to be disappearing from her body, meaning she will not develop any shinigami powers, and is perfectly stable. Well, that's great, not only are both the mother and son/daughter fine, but whoever that son/daughter is will be a hybrid of Quincy, shinigami and hollow, interestingly terrifying if I do say so myself.~" he finished with his detailed analyse, let it be said that Kisuke Urahara was _extremely_ smart, so him coming up with a conclusion like that in mere seconds was normal for him.

During his personal musings, he had not seemed to notice that Masaki had woken up, and heard everything he had said, she opened her eyes, startling Kisuke, who thought she was still out, "Do you mean that because of me, my child will be part hollow?" she asked in a frail tone, not only because of her condition, but also because she feared that what she had said was true.

"I'm afraid so, Mrs. Kurosaki, but I don't think it would be a good idea, to blame yourself for anything, there is nothing you can change about this, besides, this isn't the worst thing that could have happened to him, he will still have a loving mother to take care of him, things like that transcend even the barriers between the most different of races." Urahara reassured, where he had pulled something like that out from, nobody knew, but it seemed to work, as Masaki breathed a short sigh, of tiredness and a small bit of relief, as she relaxed on the futon, "Sorry, but, before you go to sleep, I would like to ask two questions, where does the child get his shinigami reiryoku from? The only way he could have it is if one of the parents was a shinigami, or he had had something happen to him." Masaki gained a look of annoyance at Kisuke interrupting her sleep.

"Three weeks ago, I met Isshin Shiba, does that answer your first question?" Urahara nodded, so he was right, "And I'm gonna guess your second one is how I got my hollow reiryoku?" Urahara nodded again, "I met Isshin after I saved him from an odd hollow, though the hollow was extremely powerful, and managed to pierce my blut, which I did not realise at the time, that's where I got the hollow stuff from. You happy?" Urahara nodded one final time, and Masaki finally closed her eyes, ready to let sleep take her.

* * *

 ** _9 months later..._**

It had been nine months since the whole incident with the hollow and Isshin Shiba and the Ishida family and almost dying because of hollow reiryoku. Masaki thought she had done pretty well of herself in 9 months, after she had recovered from almost turning into a hollow, Urahara had offered her a plot of land he owned, which she had gracefully accepted and, using her knowledge in medicine and studying a bit, had opened a small clinic called the 'Kurosaki Clinic', where she had had decent business, definitely enough to sustain an adult and an infant. She had not talked to either the Ishida's or Urahara since then, opting to leave the afterlife alone now that she would have a child, even though she knew said child would somehow end up being dragged into in sometime, what with being a hybrid of Quincy, Human, Shinigami and Hollow, it was safe to say he would garner some attention, even if unwanted, but she would do whatever she could to provide for her child and give him a normal life, until doing so was no longer possible.

Those last thoughts were the only thing keeping Masaki motivated during her excruciating 18 hour long childbirth, which had ended up with her giving birth to a healthy baby boy, and her being healthy as well, and, needless to say, even after the 18 hour long pain, she could confidently say it was worth it as she looked at the new-born bundle of joy in her arms.

"Welcome to the world..." Started as she gazed into the amber eyes of her son,

"...Ichigo."

* * *

 **TAA DAA!**

 **Good? Horrible? Decent? _Gokillyourselfyougoodfornothingwriterpieceofshit?_ Tell me! Review, Fav, Follow! Whatever the fuck you want! Have fun.**

 **I know it was somewhat short and maybe a bit fast pace, but come on, it's a prologue, I'm not about to write 3 chapters of 10k words for a prologue, no, I think this is fine for what it needs to be doing, which is being a prologue.**

 **Next chapter coming either next week or in 2 weeks, although I'd say probably next week.**

 **Thanks for reading.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Diary of an angsty teen.

 **Writing this right after I posted chapter 1 so I ain't got shit to say.**

 **Okay maybe I do...**

 **Just that for now, Ichigo will be a bit OOC, just for the first chapters, when it gets to the further arcs he'll be more like normal, although he'll still be more calm-headed and he'll think more before he dives into a fight.**

 **Also, the reason why Ichigo is 18 instead of 15 right now is that since Masaki had Ichigo right as she met Isshin and not 5 or something years later, Ichigo's older, pretty obvious, but I'd thought I'd point it out, this won't only apply to his age, it also means that he's older than the high-school gang, so sorry to those who like them, but they won't be in the story, for now at least. Needless to say it also applies to anything else.**

 **Okay so much for not having shit to day... but anyway,**

 **Without further ado,**

 **LEGO!**

"Talking"

'Thinking'

 **"Demon/Hollow talking"**

 **'Demon/Hollow thinking'**

 _"Spirit Talking"_

'Spirit thinking'

 **Disclaimer: Don't own Bleach.**

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Diary of an angsty teen.**

 _ **18 years later...**_

'Well, that's High School done and over, time to head to college now... yay.' Ichigo thought, somewhat sarcastically and somewhat seriously as he closed the door to his apartment behind him, ever since the death of his mother 9 years ago, Ichigo hadn't found anybody, or anything else, to care for in life, he didn't have any family he knew about, he didn't have any hobbies he could come up with, aside from beating up bullies who tried to hurt him or dishonour mementos left for spirits, and he never found anybody he could have a real bond with, a friend who was always there for him, who he actually enjoyed being around, be it male or female, he always either didn't like the person, or he would like the person at first glance, then learn more about them and proceed to dislike them, it was a never a case of the other person disliking Ichigo, not because he was so likeable, but simply because Ichigo didn't try to become friends with anybody who even slightly seemed like they didn't like him, he didn't care enough-or at least that was what he told himself- about other people, didn't think the struggle for such a relationship was worth it, and so he didn't try, he told himself that it was fine because he didn't need bonds with other people, he told himself they would be nice, but they weren't necessary, although in truth he longed for a bond like a that, but he never seemed to open himself up enough for them to happen, call it fear of rejection, call it him being lazy, he just wouldn't try to build a relationship with somebody else if the other person didn't seem like they were interested in him at all. Again, you might think him lazy, but he would qualify himself more as a person who used his energy very specifically, if he didn't care about what he was doing, like school-although he still got above average grades-, you couldn't get him to actually give his all into it, there was no point, almost all the shit he learned there had no purpose in the real world, if he could actually find something he really enjoyed and wanted to put his time in he would be working at it non-stop, alas, he hadn't, and was still looking for it, so people just called him lazy, which he didn't mind. You might think he would have childhood friends that he would be friends with, but after his mother's death he had closed up for a while, and when he had opened up again, all of his old friends had seemingly just disappeared, so Ichigo had told himself that if other people weren't willing to keep up a relationship with him, then why should he? Screw them. He told himself.

That was one of the reasons why he was excited for going to college, it happened every time really, every time a major change would come around, that could change his life for the better, he would always be enthusiastic about it, thinking that maybe this time he would meet somebody who he could actually have a bond with, but, after so long of things like that happening, and things never changing, he had become more jaded than anything, so it was rare to get any excitement out of him, simply because he didn't believe it was warranted, he knew-or told himself he knew- that it was never as good as it seemed, that something would fuck up, and often, it would.

Although there was always that small part of him, a part of him he hated, that told him, 'This time it'll actually go well, Ichigo! You'll meet somebody who you can actually care for and life will be fun again! You'll have something to live for.' he loathed that part of himself, that told everything would be better, that reminded he really had nothing to live for, in truth, he was like a lost puppy, albeit a cynical one, and would jump at any opportunity to make his life better, after making sure the person he was taking the opportunity from was trustworthy, even if that might cost him his life, he didn't care, he didn't have anything to live for, so he didn't have anything to lose.

To put it in lesser words, he was indifferent, not because he couldn't care about anything, but simply because he thought-and was often right- that nothing would come, aside from hurt, from caring about things, or people, so he was numb, just a shell waiting to be cracked, to go back to the cheery boy he was once, but it would take a lot for that shell to crack, it would a very special, in any way, person, to crack that shell, and he hoped he would find it soon, even if he would never admit it, to himself at least.

Snapping out of his thoughts of teenage angst, which he never would admit was teenage angst, simply because he would never admit he was a teenager who was affected by all the things teenagers were affected by, although his problems were actually problems, so it might not actually qualify as angst, 'They're problems I could fix if I even put even a sliver of effort into them, so I'll classify them as angst.' the small part of himself, that had admitted that Ichigo was pretty pathetic, told him, _anyways._ Snapping out of his thoughts he dropped his bag on the counter of the used to be clinic, that thought brought many unwanted thoughts into his mind, thoughts of his mother.

You see, many years ago, up until the point when he was 12, Ichigo was just a normal kid, cheerful, full of life, he had friends such as any kid would, a loving mother, although no father, he had never learned who he was, didn't bother asking, but he was a normal kid. But then, on that fateful night 6 years ago, it had all came crumbling down. It started out as a normal day, they-Ichigo and his mother, Masaki- had been walking home from Ichigo's karate practice, it was a rainy night, but Ichigo didn't mind, he had his mom by his side, that was enough to make any day sunny, Ichigo had spotted a person, sitting on the border of the small river that cut into Karakura Town, he thought the person looked like they needed help, so, being the protector he was, back then at least, he ran towards the person, barely hearing his mother's cries for him to come back, the next seconds after that had been a blur for Ichigo, all that he knew was that the moment he had touched the person sitting, time seemingly stopped, and when it started again, his mother's dead and bloody body was sprawled over him. He didn't know how to react, what to do, how was a 12 year old boy supposed to react to his mother's dead body lying on him? To this day he still didn't know what happened, he just knew that if he hadn't ran after person, if he had listened to his mother, she would still be here, ready to celebrate him going to college, so he blamed himself for her death ever since then, a burden that was still weighing heavy on him now. He was left an orphan after his mother's death, needless to say, he was lost, he had no clue what he was supposed to do now, thankfully, that period of helplessness only lasted until Masaki's funeral, which he had attended, and during which he had been approached by a dignified looking man, who had said he was going to be his caretaker until he was 15, when he could live on his own, when Ichigo had asked who the man was, he had simply said that he was a servant of a certain Ryuuken Ishida, who for some reason had decided to give Ichigo a personal caretaker and a pay-check each month, not a big one, but one big enough for Ichigo to live comfortably and go to college, that was the only conversation he had ever had with the butler, who obviously didn't see why he had to look after a brat, and Ichigo hadn't tried to socialise with him. He had still never met Ryuuken, not that he particularly wanted to, if the man didn't feel the need to talk to Ichigo, but still did all the things he did for him, then Ichigo must be somehow related to him, Ichigo had thought for a while that maybe the man was his father, but later decided to stop thinking about it, if the man was his father, he was grateful for the money, but that was all, he definitely didn't see Ryuuken as a father figure, in fact, he already knew exactly what type of person Ryuuken was, and he didn't want a person like that to be his father.

That small amount of time, in between when Masaki had died, and when the butler had came to him, Ichigo had felt something he had now vowed to never feel again,

Helplessness.

He had felt a lot of emotions going rampant during that small amount of time, despair, sadness, anger, loss, longing, but none of those even came close to the degree of helplessness he had felt, he was, well and truly, a lost puppy then. Sometimes Ichigo wondered what would have happened if this Ryuuken person had never existed, that was perhaps the only time he had felt an emotion other than a bad one for a person since his mother's death. He had felt gratitude. He had felt that warmth in his chest, that somebody-even as cold as Ryuuken- cared for him, and he loved it.

But he hated it.

The moment he realised that that warmth in his chest was there, that somebody cared for him, was also the moment he realised that the only person _in the world_ that even slightly cared about him, that would probably ever care about him, was probably some stuck up, cold, business man, who's only reason for showing kindness was probably because he was somehow indebted to Masaki, not because he actually cared about Ichigo.

That was also the moment he realised another thing.

That all people were probably exactly the same as Ryuuken in that way. Nobody ever did anything simply because it was the right thing to do, there was always an ulterior motive, nobody was kind, caring, warm, they were all cold, heartless bastards that would throw somebody under the bus if it meant they could finally stop riding on that bus and upgrade to a Rolls Royce. You might say Ichigo was a cynic.

The reason why Ichigo thought like that was probably because he had never experienced the nicer side of humanity, he had only seen the bad sides, although not personally, aside from thugs he'd beat up.

Aside from his mother, Ichigo had never felt the warmth another person could give, and Ichigo thought his mother was an exeption, she was special, a kind-hearted angel that Ichigo hadn't deserved.

And of course, Ichigo was the same as his mother, but he told himself he was an exeption as well, that the only reason he wasn't like everybody else was simply because he had nothing to live for, and so he told himself that since couldn't better his own life, he might as well better others and be of some sort of use, it's not like his life mattered more than whoever's life he was helping, no, to Ichigo, his life mattered less.

From all this, one might think Ichigo was depressed or suicidal, or both really, but in truth, Ichigo was numb, he had long since dulled out his emotional pain sensors, it was too long since he had had any use for them anyways, and so he was often left to just wonder what would happen after he died, if heaven and hell were actually a thing, although, he already knew an afterlife did exist, simply because all the spirits he had ever met had disappeared, to what Ichigo had assumed was the afterlife.

 **"Oi, Kingy! Stop with your depressing ass thoughts! It's a fucking shower over here!"** he heard what was apparently an aspect of his power, whatever that was, tell him from his mind, he sighed as he readied himself for another conversation with the spirits in his soul, or whatever the fuck it was, he had long ago simply come to the conclusion he was just a special type of schizophrenic.

 _"Yeah Ichigo, as much as it fits you, teenage angst really is annoying to deal with."_ he heard his heard his other-because yes he had 2- spirit say in his mind.

"Yeah fuck you guys as well." Ichigo grumbled, "What are you guys even here for anyway, you tell me you're a part of my soul or whatever the fuck it is, and that you're my powers, but I ain't got no type of powers."

 **"We already told you, Kingy. I have no clue how you're supposed to unlock my powers, hell, I don't even know what I am, I know my name, which I can't tell you, but I'm part of your soul, I only have your memories to base mine off of, the only thing I have that you don't is instincts, and those ain't helping much for this."** His spirit, whom Ichigo had started off calling crazy, but had settled with calling Shiro, since according to his other spirit, Shiro looked like a whited out Ichigo, said.

 _"Yes, Ichigo. I know as much as you do about your powers, only thing I know is that to be able to start using my powers you're gonna need a teacher that is actually qualified, that is to say, not me, I'm the same as Shiro in that I only have the same memories as you. The only part of your powers you can use is simply the raw energy that you have, and the only thing you can master is control of said energy, you'll need an actual teacher to learn anything more intricate, trust me, we're as curious as you are about all this."_ His second spirit, Ossan, simply because according to Shiro, he looked like an old man, said.

"You think a training trip to the mountains will somehow awaken our powers, we can probably make a cool compilation of it." Ichigo replied, his spirits were perhaps the only people Ichigo actually considered friends, which was somewhat sad when he thought about it, so he actually acted like himself around them, if it wasn't for them he probably would have just became depressed long ago.

 **"Yoooo, that'd be so cool! I mean shit, your life already sounds like something straight out of an anime, so a trip to the mountains would fit."** Shiro exclaimed excitedly, making Ossan sigh.

 _"You two watch anime too much..."_ he said, trying to sound annoyed, but his tone still held some sort of fondness to it.

Talking with his spirits always made Ichigo smile, these two were perhaps the only people(?) that had cracked his shell, although it didn't show, they were parts of his soul, not actual people, he couldn't connect with normal people like he could with Shiro or Ossan, at least that was what he told himself.

He had met these two, and discovered he had some weird powers, a little after he turned 14, he had been beating up a small crowd of thugs that had disrupted a resting place of a spirit, when he had bit off a little more than he could chew, and ended up getting what was probably the only, and last, beating he would ever get by nameless thugs, he had thankfully fallen on thugs that didn't have the nerve to kill, although he didn't know he had actually been saved by somebody when he was unconscious, and had awakened in a hospital bed, woken up by his two spirits, bickering in his mind about who would introduce himself to him first. Shortly after he had gotten out of the hospital he had been explained by his two spirits that he wouldn't be able to awaken his powers just by training, but that he could get a grasp of the energy his powers used, and learn to control said energy, which they had all agreed would make learning his actual powers a lot easier, when he had started off trying to control his energy, he had been miserable, but now he could confidently say he had mastered the art(?) of controlling his bodily energies, **"Kinky."** "Shut up." but you could always get better, was his mentality, and so to this day he still meditated often to control his powers better, and to relax.

* * *

 _ **A couple hours into the night... (Tiny itsy bitsy spoilers for Naruto past like, ep 250 lol)**_

"Madara is sooo op..." Ichigo whispered to himself, as he munched on popcorn, taking a swig of his soda after. Hey, he might not have any hobbies, or people to care for, but it didn't mean he didn't have things he liked.

 **"Yeah, I mean seriously, is Madara just a god or are the Allied Shinobi Forces just that shit, like, how low are their standards?"** Shiro agreed as both he and Ossan munched on their snacks in Ichigo's inner world, which he wasn't able to access yet.

 _"Oooooh, you must be bullshitting me, a fucking meteorite? The hell?"_ Ossan commented.

"Damn old man Onoki, I didn't know he could do that." Ichigo said, "OOOOH FOR FUCKS SAKE COME ON! A second fucking meteorite? This is some bullshit, they're making this dumbass way to powerful, now it's just not gonna make any sense when Naruto, and probably Sasuke, because for some reason he's a main character(Don't kill me, if you like Sasuke, good for you.), will defeat him, whatever, I guess I'll just enjoy the badassness of this... Damn again, old man Onoki, two meteorites? I didn't know you could do that."

 _"You feel that Ichigo? It's coming nearer."_ Ossan asked, making Ichigo sigh and pause his show, closing his laptop and setting it on his bedside table.

"Yeah, I know, there's two presences, both seem really strong for what we've ever seen, although one seems, dark, evil, almost hollow, while the other feels like what a normal person's soul would, only more powerful. I was hoping to just ignore them, but they seem to be approaching, well, the nice soul seems to be approaching the bad one, and we happen to be in the middle of it." Ichigo replied, setting himself up on his bed to look out the window, just in time to see a giant, small apartment sized monster fall down in the middle of the street, the monster held itself on 4 feet, big and green, **"Shrek"** "Shut up." it had a white mask, with red, eyes, in the middle of it's body was a hole, it seemed to sniff around, as if it had smelled something, Ichigo stared at it with wide eyes.

"What the hell is that? It's emitting that evil energy." Ichigo wondered, just as the second presence he had felt dropped down, facing the monster, from where he was he could make out a small figure, seemed female, with black hair, the figure was dressed in some sort of black robe, it stood calmly in front of the monster, as if all that was going on was normal, and pulled out a sword from what Ichigo assumed was a sheath he couldn't see, and set herself in a stance that showed she knew how to use her sword, "That chick over there is emitting the other energy, what the hell is going on here?" Ichigo asked, without much of a point.

 _"Ichigo, pay close attention to these two's energies, doesn't it seem familiar?"_ he heard Ossan say, Ichigo didn't know what he was talking about, but complied nonetheless, he focused for a couple seconds, before his eyes widened.

"Both those energies feel familiar to Shiro's." Ichigo whispered.

 **"Hey wait! What does this have to do with me?"** Shiro asked.

 _"Shiro, feel it for yourself, those two's energies feel familiar in type to yours."_

 **"You're right, what the hell is going on here? I sure as hell am not that monster, and that midget over there looks like a normal soul, aside from the weird clothing, sword, and absence of chain."**

"Wait a second, let me think." Ichigo stated, his tone serious, as he slid back down and closed his eyes, trying to figure out what could be going on.

'Okay, let's think about this clearly. Both those... things, are obviously the same as all the other souls I see in that they can't be seen by normal people, so I can assume that they are both souls of sorts, now, what could they be? Let's start off with a normal soul, they always are wearing the same clothes they wore when they died, and remember their lives, they normally died very recently, the longest a soul ever died while still being here was about 2 weeks, so the souls I've always seen are just people's souls that have left their body after they died, and are stuck on earth, until they enter the afterlife. But what about those chains they always have? The chain is always situated in the middle of the souls chest, and seems to be coming from nowhere, an endless pit of darkness, every soul that I've met with a short chain has been in extreme pain, and most of the time they have regrets about their previous life, have fallen in despair... wait. Those chains are always coming from the middle of the souls chest, and there is a hole in the middle of that monsters chest, the monster itself seems to be just a mindless beast, could it be that... could it be that if a soul is bound to their old life by regrets, and have fallen into despair, their chain disappears faster, and once the chain erodes completely, they become that... thing? It's a stretch, but it seems plausible. But what about that other soul, she just feels like a normal soul, albeit with more energy, although it feels more controlled, calm, maybe she's a soul that didn't fall into despair, and just went to the normal afterlife? All this seems plausible, but there are still a lot of holes and problems, I guess that if that soul can defeat the monster I'll be able to ask her.' Ichigo concluded, amazing his two spirits again by how smart he actually was.

 _"You know Ichigo, if you actually tried to do anything in life, you'd probably be able to do it, you have excellent physical and intellectual ability, it still amazes me."_ Ossan said, chuckling.

 **"Yeah, Ossan's right, but you mind running that by me one more time?"** Shiro asked sheepishly, knowing that if Ichigo could see him, he would be giving him a deadpan look.

"God, you're stupid. Basically, from my conclusion, there are three types of souls, the first are the ones that just died, the first type of soul is a sort of archetype to the other two, if the first soul falls into despair, it becomes that monster thing, if it just goes to a normal afterlife, it becomes like that midget chick. You got that?" Ichigo responded.

 **"Yep, thanks, but why is it that I have both of those things energy?"** Shiro asked.

"No fucking clue, all this already doesn't make much sense, I don't feel like trying to decipher it, I hope that chick can give us answers." Ichigo answered as he poked his head over the window again, to watch the scene of the petite girl slashing her sword through the monsters arm, severing it, **"She can use a _sword_ well..." **"Shut up." the monster jumped back, and, Ichigo, thinking the coast was now clear, decided to make his appearance.

"Yoo, that was dope!" Ichigo said as he jumped out his bedroom window, landing a lot better than he should have on the grass, the girl, for some reason, ignored him, pissing Ichigo off, he walked over to her, with her still ignoring him, and very gracefully, and literally, kicked her ass, making her fall down with an "eeep", "That's what you get for ignoring people." Ichigo said smugly, his foot still on the girl's ass, holding her down, the girl turned around, her wide eyes staring into Ichigo's.

"Y-you can see me?" she stuttered out, making Ichigo grin at her as he lifted his foot off her ass, letting her stand up.

"Yeah, I can see souls, which you and that monster obviously were, mind explaining me all this? I already got the brute idea of it, but my theory's a bit rough around the edges." The girl stood, albeit a bit shakily, still shocked.

"Y-yeah, I just need to deal with this hollow first." she said, Ichigo nodded, before spotting something moving in the back, his eyes widened suddenly as the monster came back, surprising the two, who didn't have the time to react, Ichigo saw that the girl would receive a fatal wound if she didn't move, which she wouldn't have the time too, so he jumped, knocking her out the way of a lethal strike at the last moment, although it obviously wasn't enough as he heard her yelp in pain, they rolled on the ground for a bit, before they crashed into a wall, Ichigo taking the brunt of the wall.

"You okay?" Ichigo asked as he set her, carefully, on the wall, so she was sitting up, she was obviously forcing herself not to yelp in pain at the wound she had received.

"I'll be fine, although now I'm in no condition to kill this hollow now, so I-no we- won't be fine for long." she said, struggling to keep herself awake, Ichigo nodded, seemingly not perturbed by the fact she had just told him he might die.

"Is there any way for us to get out this situation?" Ichigo questioned, paying close attention to the now named hollow that was slowly approaching them.

"There..." she sighed, "There is, but I don't feel comfortable involving a human in this." she said, earning a glare from Ichigo.

"None of that." he said sternly, "If it weren't for me you would have defeated that hollow just fine, I owe it to you now." he told her, surprising her with the determination in his voice.

"Okay, the only thing I can think of is me giving you my powers."

"I see, if that's all I have to do, then do it."

"I have to stab my sword through your heart to do this." she said, bringing her sword up hesitantly.

"What did I just say! Do the damn thing." Ichigo told her as he took the sword in his hand, bringing it up to his heart, he smirked at her, "Kurosaki Ichigo. You?"

She allowed a small smirk to grace her face as well, "Kuchiki Rukia." as she stabbed the sword in his heart.

The explosion was massive.

'What is going on?! There's no way my powers would cause such an explosion! He hasn't even taken half of my powers, these are his own!' she thought, shocked.

'I think I've finally managed to awaken my powers. Ne, Shiro, Ossan?' he told his spirits playfully, hearing Shiro jumping for joy in his mind.

 **"Fuck Yeahhhh! Finally you'll be able to use my powers! We don't even need the midget's powers! I can't wait to tell you my name!"** Shiro yelled happily in his mind, with Ossan chuckling at the display.

 _"Yep, seems like you'll finally be able to use our powers, although it seems you still haven't unlocked the entirety of my powers, but you can use Shiro's, that midget really has to explain this to us."_ Ossan agreed.

The explosion settled down, revealing Ichigo, holding a sword similar to what Rukia's sword looked like, it was a normal looking katana, with a pure black hilt, he now wore the same robes Rukia had worn seconds ago, 'I bet I look so badass right now.' Ichigo mused, in an amused tone, only to be greeted by silence, 'Guys? You there?' Ichigo said, suddenly worried, if those two had somehow disappeared, he probably would actually go into depression, they stayed silent for a second, scaring the life out of Ichigo, who had totally forgotten about the hollow.

 _"Sorry Ichigo, you unlocking your powers revealed some... things to us, we will tell you about it later."_ Ossan said, obviously choosing his words carefully, making Ichigo suspicious.

'Whatever, you guys owe me a talk later.' Ichigo grumbled.

"Ichigo! Pay attention!" he heard Rukia yell, snapping him out of his thoughts as he saw the giant hollow's claw heading straight towards him, he barely had time to dodge as he jumped back.

"Sorry about that." he said as he brought his sword up, and almost instinctively, although he had no actual idea what he was doing, disappeared in a blur, appearing in front of the hollow.

'Shunpo?! How could he possibly know that!?' Rukia thought, bewildered, "Aim for the mask!" she managed to yell out as Ichigo prepared his attack.

"Thanks!" he replied, striking down with as much force as he could down on the hollow's mask, slicing it in half and making it disappear in a shower of particles, "Uh, that was easy..." he muttered as he turned back towards Rukia, who was looking at him with mouth agape, he smirked as he walked back towards her, "You know anyway I can get you healed?" he asked.

"Well, there's healing kido, but there's no way you'd know of it..." she said.

"Let me guess, your healing kido requires me to just send some of that energy I just awakened to you in controlled amounts, right?" he guessed, making Rukia look at him with a small amount of surprise.

"You're very perceptive." She complimented.

"If your healing kido just needs good control then I think I can use it." he said.

"What do you mean? Acquiring good reiryoku control takes years."

"Yeah I'll tell you about that later, as long as you tell me about what just happened, although I've already figured out a bit of it." he told her, "Turn around." he set his hands on her back, where her injury was, and for the first time in his life, was able to use his masterful control to send some of his energy-reiryoku- to his hands and transfer it to her body, his only thought at the moment was that he had to heal Rukia, which apparently was the right thought to have as only minutes later, the wound had closed, leaving a small-for the injury she had- scar on her back, that would no doubt heal over time, "There you go, you're all patched up. Now would you mind explaining me about all this?" he said as she ran her hands where her wound once was, obviously shocked at healing prowess he had just shown.

"You just healed my wound faster than most seated officers in the 4th could have... either you're a prodigy in healing or you just have a lot of reiatsu to waste."she whispered to herself, making Ichigo rub the back of his head in a sheepish fashion.

"I think it's the latter, it took me ages to get the control I have now, you should have seen me before, I'm pretty sure I was a beacon for that energy. Anyways, we should head in my apartment instead of staying in the street." he said as he helped her up, suddenly, he sensed a presence, very well hidden, but he sensed it, near them, "Wait. There's somebody near here." he said as he turned around, looking straight at the direction where the reiatsu was coming from, "Oi! Come out of there!" he yelled, prompting a person with a straw-hat, a green haori, and an infuriating smirk, to land down on the street, facing them, "What are you doing here? I wasn't able to sense you before, but you were clearly watching all that just happened. Mind telling me why you didn't help, more so, how you knew all this was gonna happen?" Ichigo said, his voice showing the suspicion he had, he tightened his grip on his sword, ready for anything.

"Why me? I'm just a humble shopkeeper, the only reason I was there was because I sensed something happening, I'm not nearly strong enough to have defeated that scary hollow, I didn't know any of this was gonna happen. I'm just here to help this young lady here." he said, careful not to say the name of either of the two young people in front of him, Ichigo would certainly pick up on that.

"Stop bullshitting us. You're clearly powerful enough to defeat us, and the hollow, at the same time, and I can tell you already knew this was gonna happen, there's something you're not telling us." Ichigo told him, putting his sword in a ready position.

"Ahh, I guess you got me, you're more perceptive that I thought you would be, Ichigo, all I can tell right now that wouldn't require a long explanation is that I did know this was going to happen, but I didn't plan it, the only reason I let it happen was so that you could awaken your powers. I'm just here to help you guys. Please understand that." he pleaded, his voice serious for somebody like him, Ichigo almost relented, but his cynical side still told him to push further.

"And how am I supposed to know that this isn't just some ploy to get us to come with you?" he said.

"I'll answer all of your questions if you just follow me. But for now all I can show you is this." he said as he reached in his pocket, and pulled out a golden locket, that Ichigo instantly recognised, and opened it, shocking Ichigo down to the bone.

"T-that's..." he stuttered out, the locket, now opened, showed a picture of his mother, smiling happily, with a toddler Ichigo in her arms, he recognised it instantly because he had one of those as well, and his mother had told him that she had given another one to somebody else, and that that other person could be fully trusted if they showed it, "Why would you have that? My mother had nothing to do with all this!" he yelled out, Rukia was simply sitting on the side, entirely confused at what was happening. The straw-hatted man sighed, bringing his hat down to cover his face.

"Unfortunately, there is a lot that was never told to you, and there is a lot you must know in order for this all to make sense to you, but I trust that you will follow me now." he said, sounding truly regretful, Ichigo shakily nodded, still shocked by what he had just seen.

"Yeah... okay, let's go, I'm pretty sure we can trust him, Rukia." he told her. Walking towards the man, "What's your name, you obviously know ours." Rukia followed after him, deciding that if Ichigo trusted the man, she could, which when she thought about it, didn't make much sense.

"Urahara Kisuke." he answered, a playful, and annoying, smirk on his face, "Follow me, if you will."

* * *

 **Taa daa, chapter 2 of Hybrid is done!  
**

 **Now I know I said, literally last Wednesday, that there would only be updates every Wednesday, each two weeks, but that doesn't mean I can't release extra chapters, or release them earlier. So basically, I'll be consistent in that there will definitely be at least one update every two weeks for each story, but I'll be inconsistent in that there might be more than one update for each story each week. Got that? Probably not, but oh well.**

 **Hope you liked this chapter, this story will be very different from cannon, as you can see, I won't have Ichigo be as dense as he is in cannon, or in other fanfictions, I refuse to have a dumbass main character, it's infuriating to read. I also won't have everybody hold secrets from him that should be told to him, like, you know, almost every single fucking secret that was kept from him. There'll be more changes than that, but that would be spoilers.**

 **Thanks for reading.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry?...**

 **Yeah I know I basically took a 2 month break right after I said I was gonna start updating consistently, but uhhh, shit happens... yeah. I just really didn't have the time, nor could I find the motivation, to write anything, so I just kept procrastinating doing it, once again, extremely sorry... but the good news is I am on vacation as of now so I will hopefully find the motivation to write shit! But it still wont't be consistent as I won't be able to update for the next 2 weeks after this, so hopefully this chapter, and maybe an extra one, will be out before that.**

 **Also, for those who are interested in my other story, I honestly can't find any sort of motivation to write it, so for now it is on hiatus or whatever the fuck you call it, if I one day find the want to write it again, I will, sorry.**

 **Anyways, now that that's out the way...**

 **LEGO!**

"Talking"

'Thinking'

 **"Demon/Hollow talking"**

 **'Demon/Hollow thinking'**

 _"Spirit Talking"_

 _'Spirit thinking'_

 **Disclaimer: Don't own Bleach.**

* * *

 **Chapter 3:**

They arrived at Urahara's 'shop' fairly quickly, not talking at all during the trip, the tensions being high since Ichigo still didn't fully trust Urahara for many reasons, Shiro and Ossan had also stayed silent, obviously occupied by whatever had happened to them, which Ichigo was still curious about, but he would let them sort out their thoughts.

Urahara stopped in front of the small shack and turned around to face an emotionless Ichigo and a still confused Rukia, "Welcome to the Urahara Shoten!" he exclaimed cheerfully, thinking that he might be able to break the tensions between him and Ichigo, which didn't work, as Ichigo still stared at him with an impassive and unimpressed face, obviously still suspicious. Urahara saw this and internally sighed, he had hoped that Ichigo wouldn't be as suspicious, perceptive and smart as he actually was. The shopkeeper could now easily see that he wouldn't be able to keep many secrets from the teen, if any, he appeared to have become somewhat jaded, which Urahara should have expected, having witnessed his mother being murdered at 12 and living with a damn near mute butler till he was old enough to be left alone would definitely have built his character up. Along with the fact that he was more of an observer, given his introverted nature, Ichigo would definitely be able to see through him. Thinking back on it, one would have to be extremely unobservant to not ask questions about what Urahara was going to tell him, 'I just hope that he'll be able to deal with all this.'

"Okay Rukia, am I right in assuming that you have lost a considerable amount of your powers after today's events?" Urahara questioned, surprising Rukia since she wasn't expecting to be talked to yet, although she quickly recomposed herself, putting her noble face on.

'Pretty bad act she's got there.' Ichigo thought as he scoffed internally, 'She obviously isn't some strict emotionless woman, so why would she put up such an act? Is that what she wants to appear as? No, if that was the case she wouldn't be so easy to see through, maybe some obligation? I'm guessing she might be part of some noble family wherever she's from and she's expected to be the perfect noble girl, if that's the case, I pity her.' he concluded feeling a small amount of empathy for her, he wouldn't be able to stand living a life like that, he might be naturally distant, but he would hate to have to act like some stuck up noble kid.

 _'That seems like a plausible conclusion Ichigo.'_ he head Ossan say in his head, almost making him actually jump with how much it surprised him.

'Ossan? Where's Shiro?' he asked.

 **'Right here king. As Ossan said earlier, we have some things to talk about, but we think it'd be better if we heard what Geta-Boshi had to say first.'** Shiro said, getting a mental snort of laughter from Ichigo at the name Geta-Boshi, he turned his attention back to the two in front of him however as he heard Rukia reply.

"Yes, from what I'm sensing of my own power I've lost about half of it. I got lucky in that Ichigo was able to control the amount he took from me, otherwise I probably would have lost all of them." she answered, getting a nod from Urahara.

"Alright, how long would you assume it would take you to regain those parts of your soul?" Urahara questioned.

"I honestly am not too sure, I would assume around two to three weeks if I didn't exert myself too much. I was supposed to be assigned to Karakura for 1 month though, so I should be fine to go back to Soul Society without them figuring this out." Rukia explained, indirectly completing Ichigo's theory that was brewing in his head.

'Urahara said that she had to regain parts of her soul, so she is indeed a soul, they're also using the term 'power' and 'parts of the soul' interchangeably, meaning that they are linked, perhaps the power they have comes from the soul, maybe something like spiritual energy, that would explain why Ossan and Shiro refer to themselves as part of my power and parts of my soul. She said she was supposed to be settled here for 1 month, obviously to protect the population from what she called hollows, huh, that name makes sense. Anyways, the way she's referring to Soul Society and the fact that she is obviously well trained in martial arts and sword fighting leads me to believe that Soul Society either is, or has, a military organisation, obviously to fight hollows and probably some other purpose, I guess heaven isn't such a great place after all...' he thought sadly, having learned that the afterlife was indeed a thing, he had hoped it would be a perfect place, but it obviously wasn't, 'Whatever, question is, what governs whether a Soul becomes a hollow or a goes to Soul Society? How would a Soul even get to Soul Society? Dammit, I can't answer these question, I guess I'll have to ask.' he concluded, turning his attention back to Urahara and Rukia's conversation.

"That's perfect then!" Urahara exclaimed cheerfully, "Since Ichigo has his own powers, he'll be able to cover for you until you recover your powers, I'll just have to get you a gigai and you'll be all set!" he said.

Rukia seemed to think about that option for a couple seconds, debating wether or not Ichigo could act a somewhat of a 'subsitute' soul reaper without the Soul Society becoming aware of it, completely entrenched in her thoughts and worries she wasn't able to realise that all this was a bit too convenient, something that Ichigo did realise, but decided to keep to himself until he could talk alone with Urahara. After a bit of internal debating, Rukia said, "That seems like a decent plan, since Ichigo already has control over his spiritual energy it won't leak and as long as he doesn't need to use too much of it, which he shouldn't have to in order to deal with normal hollows, given all that I'm pretty sure we could keep under the radar for now." she concluded, to which Urahara gave a internal sigh of relief, at least she wasn't as perceptive as Ichigo, or maybe she was and was too occupied by her worries to realise what was going on, whichever it was it worked in his favour.

"Fantastic, just follow me and I'll get you a gigai." he said as he started walking into the store, Rukia following after him, "Just wait a couple minutes Ichigo, we'll talk after I'm done with the miss." Urahara said as he disappeared into the shop, leaving Ichigo to debate what he thought was going on.

'All this is way to convenient, first Rukia appeared in front of my house, then Urahara appears right in time to help us out, but not early enough to save Rukia even though he clearly was there during the entire scene, now he already has a gigai ready for her, which either means he was already planning all this would happen, or has a reason to fabricate those types of things. the only thing that makes me even remotely trust him is the fact he has my mother's locket, which he still has to tell me about. Gahhh, too many questions I can't answer, it's frustrating.' Ichigo rambled on his mind, getting annoyed at all the information he didn't have, in the end he simply settled for trying to talk to his spirits, hoping they for whatever reason would have answers, 'Any ideas guys?' he asked.

 _'For now, even though we have gotten some information, it still doesn't make much sense to us and it would probably be better if we got an explanation from that man before we can come to a conclusion, but for now we'll just have to wait, trust me, we are confused about this as you are.'_ Ossan said in his head.

'Whatever, I just hope that he won't take his time.' he thought as he settled for leaning against wall of the shop arms crossed and tapping his foot against the floor. He looked around the 'shop', 'This obviously isn't an actual shop, nobody would come here, this is probably just a cover or something, just another question I have to ask him.' he told himself as he looked around mindlessly, his eyes came upon a cat standing on top of the building next to the store, it was a black cat, its yellow eyes shining in the dark, but for some reason it caught Ichigo's attention, maybe because it exuded a well hidden but very well there spiritual energy, or maybe simply because Ichigo felt that there was that much more to the cat, but he couldn't take his eyes of it, the cat seemed to notice the attention it was getting as it turned its head around and its eyes met Ichigo, surprising him with the amount of mirth and life he saw in them, the cat seemed to... grin? Before Ichigo blinked and all of the sudden it was gone. Ichigo blinked again, nothing. He shook his head, 'On top of all the shit that's going on I'm going crazy seeing spirit animals walking around, Urahara cannot get back fast enough.' he thought as he settled for simple looking at the ground, he waited for a couple minutes before the door opened again, Rukia stepping out first with Urahara following after, Ichigo walked towards her, feeling like he owed her something for having put her in this situation, even if it was somewhat planned, "You okay Rukia?" Ichigo asked, a small amount of worry seeping into his normally neutral voice.

"Yeah, I'm fine, even though this gigai is uncomfortable I'll get used to it." she replied.

"Do you have any idea where you're going to stay?" he questioned, guessing the answer by the downtrodden expression she gained, "If you need any place to stay I have a couple spare rooms in my house you could stay in, I owe you that much." he suggested, surprising her.

"Oh no! I wouldn't want to inconvenience your family with me being there, I'll find a place on my own." she said, obviously not noticing the error in her words.

"I live alone, I've got a fully stocked room you could use." Ichigo said, not getting angry or being sensitive at what Rukia had just said, there was no point in getting mad at her for what she didn't know and he had already accepted he didn't have any family, there was no point in rejecting or getting angry at reality so he had accepted that fact long ago, although Rukia seemed to think otherwise, reacting as if she had said something horrible.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to mention that, if that's the case I guess I'll accept your offer if you don't mind." she said, to which Ichigo gave a playful smirk as he answered.

"Of course I don't mind, I suggested the idea after all, do you remember the way back to my house?" They hadn't traveled that far, so Ichigo assumed she remember the way.

"Yes I do." she confirmed.

"Then you can either go back there and wait for me or find a way to jump through the window and make yourself comfortable." he said to which she nodded.

"Thank you." she said formerly as she gave a small bow before leaving, Ichigo gave a small laugh as he saw her leave.

"I guess old habits die hard." he muttered to himself before he put his emotionless face back on, turning towards Urahara who had been watching the interaction, "So what's with you Urahara? You've got some explaining to do." he said emotionlessly.

"Why are you like that with me? You were nice with Rukia-san, you even offered her a stay in your apartment, my, I hope you're not trying to do anything with her." Urahara said with a playful smirk.

 **'If we were actually trying to get a girlfriend, we wouldn't go after small children, or at least chicks that look like small children.'** Shiro said in Ichigo's mind.

"She's different, if anything she's the victim in this whole plan, which you're about to explain to me. I won't accept any lies or holes, you're gonna explain everything to me, this whole Soul Society business, why Rukia and me meeting and all this happening was obviously planned, why you didn't help, and why you know my mother." Ichigo said, his voice not leaving any room for argument, Urahara's expression turned serious as he heard Ichigo piling on the demands, he was only planning on telling him that he was a soul reaper for now, all the business with Aizen and his family would be left alone.

"And how do you plan on making me do that Kurosaki-san? You don't seem to have any type of leverage over me do you?" Urahara said, he knew he was crossing a thin line here, Ichigo already barely trusted him, and if he pushed too far he would ruin everything, but he really didn't want to tell him everything yet, if only because he thought Ichigo wasn't ready for it.

"Simple, you're gonna tell me everything because otherwise I'll just leave and be a 'Substitute Soul Reaper', whatever that is, until Rukia leaves and then go back to my normal life, which you obviously don't want, since I can tell for one reason or another I'm essential to your plan, so tell me Urahara, what leverage do you have over me? I don't have anything to protect, I don't have any family and I don't really care about dying since I have nothing to live for. So what are you going to do?" Ichigo said, the way he had said that might seem depressing, but Ichigo had long since accepted that fact, and he was fine with it, he didn't have a problem with having nothing to live for, and if he did he could find something to live for. It was then that they both knew Ichigo had won the argument, he had all the power over this conversation and they both knew it. Urahara simply released a sad sigh as Ichigo finished his explanation, knowing he couldn't do anything other than explain the situation now.

"Okay then, I guess you've won this, follow me so we can sit down and talk." Urahara said as he turned around and walked into the store, Ichigo following.

They walked into the small shop, making their way to a small sitting place, with a table and cushions on the floor, Urahara and Ichigo sat down, "Tessai! Would you mind getting tea for us?" Urahara asked and immediately a huge man, with a stern expression, a weird haircut and a thick mustache stepped through the door to another room that Ichigo hadn't been in, two cups of tea in his hand.

'How did he already have two cups ready?' Ichigo thought as the man set the cups down in front of them, leaving quickly after, Ichigo set his gaze back to Urahara, waiting for the man to start as he sipped on his tea.

"I guess there's no avoiding this." Urahara said, setting his cup down and looking at Ichigo straight in the eyes, surprising him with his sudden seriousness, "Let's start from the beginning, shall we?" and so the next 10 minutes were spent with Urahara explaining to Ichigo what he mostly already knew, that being the existence of hollows, soul society and shinigami, even going as in depth as to telling Ichigo about the spirit king and what he entailed as well, "That's for the basics, if I hadn't explained this to you you wouldn't understand the rest, so do you need any more explanations?" Urahara asked.

"No, not really, I had already figured out the half of all that, that just clears it up." Ichigo said, surprising Urahara since he had apparently already guessed most of what he had just said, "Now to the more important stuff. Why was everything that just happened planned? And why am I, or Rukia, the center of that plan?" Ichigo questioned, prompting Urahara to explain the second third of the entire story to Ichigo, that being the existence of Aizen, and what he planned, by the end of it Ichigo had gotten a pretty good understanding of what was going on, but he still needed one question answered, "Why me?"

Urahara sighed, knowing that the next part would be the worst to explain, "The reason why Aizen has such a sick fascination for you is because you are entirely different from everything anybody has ever seen, and Aizen is interested in that. You see, I have for now only told you about the shinigami and the hollows, but there is one last 'race' that exists in this supernatural world, the quincies. The quincies were humans who were able to absorb the reishi around them and use it as a weapon, using that they fought hollows to defend themselves and the population around them, however, there was an issue with that, for when quincies killed hollows, they didn't do it in the same way shinigami did, by cleansing them, no, they destroyed hollows entirely, and that was a problem because, as I have already told you, if the balance between souls is disrupted, the consequences would be disastrous, and so the shinigami tried to reason with the quincies, but that didn't work, and a war ensued, one that the shinigami won, that was about 200 years ago, during those 200 years quincies more or less died out, so much so that now there are only a couple left, one such family of quincies that 'died out' only 6 years ago, was the Kurosaki family." Urahara explained, making ichigo's eyes widen in something he never thought he would feel, shock.

"My mother... was a quincy." he whispered to himself.

"Yes, and several years ago she was killed by the hollow Grand Fisher protecting her son, and now one of the last quincies on earth, Ichigo Kurosaki." Urahara said sadly.

Ichigo sat there for several minutes, his eyes slowly going back to their normal size as he accepted what he was being told, "But if my mother was a quincy, how come she couldn't protect herself from the hollow?" Ichigo questioned, his voice surprising Urahara with how even it was, he had truly underestimated Ichigo's mental fortitude, but he still answered the question, telling him about Yhwach and how his mother had lost her powers right before her death, Ichigo once again sat there, his emotions for once uncontrollable and in turmoil, he wasn't sure what to feel anymore, he wouldn't blame himself for his mother's dead, there was no point in that, he also wouldn't seek revenge against the hollow, there was once again no point in doing that, a hollow was an unconscious being, ruled by instinct, wanting vengeance against it would be akin to wanting revenge against a wild tiger. Yhwach however, he was a different story, a king, who used his own soldiers to gain power, killing them on a whim, that was no king, but Ichigo still didn't find himself hating, or even disliking him. No, people did what they did because they were driven towards it for some reason, it was what they thought was good, he couldn't fault somebody for doing what they thought was good, but he would fight it, since their vision of good went against what he thought was good, that was his view on things, and why he didn't get mad a people like Yhwach or Aizen for being the 'bad guys', they did what they thought was good, and he could respect that, but that good went against other people's good, and so fights would ensue, wars, but he still couldn't fault them, no.

But despite all that, questions still lingered in his mind, "So I'm part quincy and part shinigami," he excluded the fact that he had felt hollow energy from Shiro, deciding that that was a question for another time, "If I got my quincy powers from my mother, that means I got my shinigami powers from my father, so, who was my father?" Ichigo asked, although he didn't care that much, he had lived his whole life without a father, and no matter what he was told now, he would never see whoever the answer to his question was as his father, he wouldn't feel hate towards that person, unless something else had happened, he would simply be indifferent to them, they would be just another person in the world.

"Your father is Isshin Shiba, he was, and probably still is, the clan head of the Shiba Clan, a Noble clan with a big influence over Soul Society, and the captain of squad 10." Urahara explained, noting that Ichigo's expression didn't change at all at the revelation, "You don't seem to care that much, care to explain?" he asked.

"I don't honestly care that much, I guess it makes sense though, that my father would be a powerful shinigami. To me it doesn't affect anything that he is my father by blood, that doesn't mean I have to see him as a father figure. Although I would like to know how my father and mother met, since them being in a relationship goes against several things you have told me." Ichigo said.

Another 10 minutes later Ichigo had been filled in on how his mother and father had, very briefly, met, "Do you hate your father at all after hearing this?" Urahara asked, it wasn't a question he wanted to ask, but he had to. Although Ichigo's expression hadn't changed at all during the story, so he felt he already knew the answer.

"No, I don't. He had no reason of knowing my mother was pregnant, he made a mistake that he didn't even realize, I can't fault him, or hate him, for that." Ichigo said, once again surprising Urahara with the teen's maturity, "But aside from that, you're saying I'm also part hollow? Meaning I'm a hybrid **(Roll credits)** of the three?" Ichigo asked.

"Yes, that's why Aizen, and to an extent me, have been so intersted in you." Urahara confirmed.

"Oh well, if that's the case I should probably tell you I've already spoken to them, the aspects of my power, or whatever you call them." Ichigo told him, making Urahara's mouth go slack.

"You've already spoken to your spirits?" Urahara said, shocked once again.

"Yeah, although up until know we didn't have a clue what we were, so I guess that clears that." Ichigo said.

"Although there is still a problem here, you've said that Aizen has basically been the mastermind for everything that has happened to you guys, so what's to say he wasn't the mastermind for what is going on right now? For what happened to Isshin with that weird hollow?" Ichigo questioned, Urahara thought about it, his mind going over the entirety of everything that had happened and how that could be related to Aizen, before his eyes widened.

"That... could be a possibility, and if so it would throw a big wrench in my plans I had for the Hogyoku." Urahara said.

"And what were those plans?" Ichigo questioned, making Urahara scratch the back of his head awkwardly.

"Ahhhh, you don't really need to know about them..." he told Ichigo, laughing nervously, "It's nothing too important, doesn't really affect you..."

"Well, if that's the case, if all this is 'Nothing too important' and 'Doesn't affect me', I'll just get going, let you deal with Aizen on your own." Ichigo said, getting up and making for the door, knowing Urahara would comply.

"Ahh, no wait wait, I'll tell you it's just... I want you to know I wouldn't have done this if it wasn't the only possible solution I could have come up with." Urahara explained, grabbing Ichigo's arm and ushering him back to the table.

"I don't care, just tell me what you planned." Ichigo said, sitting back down.

"Okay, so basically, as I've told you, the Hogyoku is basically indestructible, but I found a way to counter that, I found that if I inserted it inside of a soul, and that soul died, the Hogyoku would die, or be destroyed, along with it. So at first i had decided to insert it inside of myself, and to die with it, since even though souls live an impossible amount of time compared to normal humans, we still die of old age. However, that plan backfired, since the Hogyoku started feeding on my reiatsu, just having it in me for a couple days drained me of energy faster than I could replenish it, and I figured that after only a couple days, I would have lost all my reiatsu." Urahara started off.

"I'm guessing you're too important in all this to have your powers taken, so you had to find somebody else, that didn't matter too much, is that right?" Ichigo reasoned, already seeing the direction where this was going, and not liking it.

"Yes, and that's where Rukia comes in." Urahara said, his head down, expecting Ichigo to yell at him, however no noise came after a couple seconds.

"I'm not mad at you, I don't like it, but I can understand that there was no other option, continue." Ichigo said calmly.

"Yes, but that was when my first problem came, Rukia lost only half her powers, and not the entirety of them, which means that she'll realize her powers are being drained at an exponential rate, although I decided I would just play clueless if she asked me about it." Urahara told him, making Ichigo sigh and rub his head in the palm of his hand.

"Okay Urahara, not only is that one of the most despicable things I've ever heard anyone do, it's also the stupidest. Do you really think Aizen doesn't know you did this? The way you've described him to me almost makes him seem omniscient, I'm sure he already knows what you've done." Ichigo said.

"Well, to be honest, I'm not exactly sure how he could stop this even if he knew about this." Urahara said, sounding more like a clueless child than one of the smartest and most cunning minds known. **(A/N Yes I know I'm making Urahara look stupid, and that's not to say he is, but think about what happened in the story, was it not stupid of him to do all this and think Aizen wouldn't figure it out?)**

"Oh for crying out loud! What did he do to get you and the other visoreds exiled?" Ichigo told him, sounding exasperated, and making Urahara's eyes widen.

"He tricked Central 46 with his zanpakuto and framed us for crimes we didn't commit." Urahara whispered.

"Yeah, and he's probably gonna do the same thing again, except this time with Rukia, he's probably going to find a way so he can get her in his grasp and get the Hogyoku from her." Ichigo said, "Although I think I might have a different way to deal with this."

"And what would that be?" Urahara questioned.

"Simple, just put the Hogyoku in me, after all, I'm just a regular human, I shouldn't have these powers, and besides, just cause I have no reiatsu doesn't mean I wouldn't be able to talk to my spirits." Ichigo said.

 **'Wait wait wait a second Ichigo! You can't just get rid of our powers right when we got them! I want to use these things!"** Shiro yelled from inside his mind.

 _'Shiro, you know as well as I do that getting rid of the Hogyoku is more important than us, Ichigo's decision is the right one.'_ Ossan said.

'Yeah Shiro, trust me, I want to use these powers as much as you do, but getting rid of that Hogyoku thing is more important.' Ichigo told him, Shiro sighed in his head, obviously annoyed by what was happening.

 **'Fine, fine, fine. I get it. Responsible decisions, yada yada yada, doesn't mean I have to like it!'** Shiro said, the conversation obviously over, Ichigo turned his attention back to Urahara, who was looking at him with a thoughtful expression.

"Ichigo, as much as I'm sure you don't care, you're a miracle in terms of science, the first naturally born Shinigami-Hollow-Quincy hybrid! I can't just let something like that go to waste! Alright listen, how about we keep the Hogyoku in Rukia, and just find a way to work through all this." Urahara suggested, his tone going from outraged, to passionate, to awkward and to scared respectively as Ichigo pinned him with a glare that somehow felt like it was freezing him.

He hated that. Being looked upon as special simply because he was born one way, or the other, it made him sick, being praised simply for being born, he hadn't done anything to warrant him being considered superior, and even if he had, he wouldn't care less for it, he didn't take well to being praised, or looked up at, and even less when he didn't deserve it, in a case like this, it infuriated him. And so he didn't even realize that while his next words were spoken, his reiryoku had gone up to a crushing amount, his sclera turning black and his voice changing, **"I don't care what I am, or how special I am, you know as well as I do that destroying that Hogyoku thing is more important than all of us, especially me, and since you don't seem to want to do it, I will."** Ichigo said, his voice calm but still radiating power, Urahara meanwhile, was left hanging on to the table to avoid being crushed by the massive reiryoku.

'Barely trained in his powers and already managing to push me down with his reiryoku, truly terrifying.' Urahara thought with a small smirk, hidden by his hat.

The pressure suddenly faded, and Ichigo's eyes returned to their normal color, "What... was that?" he whispered to himself, staring at his hands.

 **"That... was... awesome!"** Shiro yelled, **"I can't believe you would want to get rid of these powers, with them we could simply wipe the floor with Aizen, Hogyoku or not!"**

"Truly impressive Ichigo, also truly a shame that such potential will remain untapped because of your decision." Urahara said, "Also, to answer your question, that was a simple slip in your control, with your hollow side coming out a bit because of your emotions, nothing you can't fix if you realize when you start losing control. But that's besides the point, if you really wish to have the Hogyoku put in your soul, I will come at your house tomorrow to give Rukia her right gigai and do it for you, however I wish for you to think on this, I'll let you make your final decision tomorrow." Urahara said, "I think that's all we needed to discuss. Now, off you go! Wouldn't want to leave Rukia alone for too long now would you?" he told him, his playful tone coming back. Ichigo got up, happy that his exchange with the crazy scientist was over.

"Yeah whatever, I'll see you tomorrow." Ichigo said as he passed the door, making his way back home and leaving Urahara in the room, a room that a black cat soon entered.

"So, how was he?" the cat said.

"I'm pretty sure you heard what was talked about." Urahara said, seemingly not disturbed in the slightest by the talking cat, "Well! That's over, time to get back to business! I have a shop to run after all!"

* * *

 **Alright so, once again, extremely sorry for the wait, and extremely sorry for the other wait that is going to happen, because as I've said, I won't be able to update for the next 2 weeks after this chapter, although I hope to get a second chapter out today, but I'm not promising anything.**

 **So, about the story, yes, I made Ichigo really really smart, and that's simply because I really really dislike stupid, or even average intelligence, characters, now I'm not some elitist that thinks that being smart means being superior, but I still can't stand readin stories where Ichigo is a dumbass, although I'm pretty sure I already said that in past chapters.**

 **Anyways, I know there's gonna be some people saying 'Oh! That's so stupid, you had Urahara reveal all his secrets just like that, that so wouldn't happen dude!'. Okay, first of all, I hated the fact that Urahara kept all those bullshit secrets because, if he hadn't kept them, Aizen probably wouldn't have gotten his hands on the Hogyoku and even if he had, Ichigo would have been powerful enough to stop him, since he would have been at his full power the whole time, and also would have been able to train those powers. I also know that would have ruined the story, so I'm not mad at Tite for doing it like that, but it just means I'll do it differently, so yes, Ichigo will be very powerful, but he won't be god-like, at least not yet, there's no fun in that. And second of all, Urahara really didn't have that much of an option, did he?**

 **But, no matter my reasoning for everything I wrote, I hope you all enjoyed it.**

 **Thanks for reading.**


	4. Chapter 4

**"Chapter 4: So uhhhh, is your ass real?"**

 **Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, about me not updating this story in 2 months again, the thing is that uuuhhhhhh...**

 **LEGO!**

"Talking"

'Thinking'

 **"Demon/Hollow talking"**

 **'Demon/Hollow thinking'**

 _"Spirit Talking"_

 _'Spirit thinking'_

 **Disclaimer: Don't own Bleach.**

* * *

"Chapter 4: So uhhhh, is your ass real?"

Ichigo made his way back home at a normal pace, thinking over all that he had been told, making sure he understood it all, reflecting on the revelations about himself, and finally accepting it. Heaven existed, it wasn't perfect. Shinigami, hollows and quincies existed, and he was a hybrid of the three. And he accepted it, that was the way it was, and he could work with it.

If anything, it was exciting, he would finally be able to dedicate himself to something, training, developing his powers, fighting against other superpowered people, it was something to look forward to. Although he hoped not to die in the first week.

He arrived in front of his house and jumped up to the window thanks to the enhanced strength in his soul body, and saw Rukia standing there, in his desk chair, looking like she was trying to make herself look as small as possible, she looked up when she felt him arrive, "Oh, hello." she said awkwardly.

"Hey," he replied, wondering why she looked so distraught, "What's wrong?" he asked, lying down on his bed, she seemed to try to make herself look even smaller at that question.

"It's just... even though there's a lot of free space here, I feel like I'm intruding, I got you into this situation after all... all this is my fault." she said, looking down, she didn't mention that his appearance brought up some bad memories for her. Ichigo looked at her with a soft glare.

"Oh come on, stop acting like that, I'm fine with you staying here, a bit of company is always nice, besides, it's not your fault, I distracted you and you got injured, it's my fault. I don't want you to feel guilty about this, not only because you shouldn't," he said as he leaned up and stood himself against his wall, and gave her a grin, "But also because it'd be extremely annoying to deal with a brooding girl living with me." he told her, making her give a short snort of laughter. She stood more confident after that. They kept silent for a bit, Ichigo because he didn't feel the need, or think it was the right time, to start conversation, and Rukia because she was in her thoughts.

'He feels so much like him.' she thought as she stared shortly at him, he was lying back down on his bed, staring at the ceiling, 'He exudes that same aura, although it feels like he's keeping it to himself, like he doesn't want other people to feel it, he's making himself unapproachable on purpose. I guess he has some other problems.' she continued, telling herself that she would help him fix those problems, not only because she felt she had to because of his resemblance to Kaien, but also because he had helped her so much, and he seemed like a genuinely nice person, 'The only person who could ever comfort me like that was Kaien, although he's more big brother type, not... that type." she thought with a small blush, Ichigo definitely felt more like a big brother to her than a crush.

Deciding she had gone on with her ramblings long enough she looked back at Ichigo and spoke, "So, I haven't actually looked around, I stayed in here waiting for you, would you mind showing me around?" she asked, the hesitance in her voice almost totally gone, Ichigo sat back up, cracking his knuckles, a small tic he had, and nodded.

"Yeah sure, just follow me." he said as he walked out of the room, showing her around the house, Rukia couldn't help but notice that it was especially big for one person to live in, and also that it used to be a clinic, and as much as she knew that she shouldn't have, she asked the question that was plaguing her mind.

"Why do you live in such a big apartment? It's really big for one person the live in." she said, facepalming in her mind the instant she asked the question, she looked up to Ichigo, expecting him to be glaring at her. However his impassive look hadn't changed.

"I used to live here with my mom, she died a couple years back, and I never met my dad." he answered, his tone normal, as if he was stating a fact. Rukia looked down, knowing she shouldn't have asked. Ichigo rolled his eyes, "Oh come on, I'm not gonna get emotional about something like that years after it happened, ask me anything, I don't mind."

Rukia kept silent though, not comfortable with asking such questions, even though Ichigo seemed not to mind it, which was surprising.

Once Ichigo had finished showing her most of the house, he showed her the guest room, "I was thinking you would sleep in here, I'll go get sheets and stuff." Rukia simply nodded, sitting down on the bed while Ichigo left, now alone with her own mind, coming to terms with the day's events. Ichigo eventually came back, setting the sheets down, "You hungry?" he asked.

"I guess I could eat something." she responded.

"Ok, you like top ramen?" she looked at him confusedly.

"I know what ramen is, but what's top ramen?" she questioned, Ichigo smirked.

"Oh, you're in for a treat, wait here a minute or two." he said mirthfully, leaving the room again.

'They don't have top ramen in soul society? Poor souls.' Ichigo thought, shaking his head in disappointment.

 **"I know right! What kind of torture is that?!"** Shiro yelled, making Ichigo jump in surprise.

Ossan sighed in his head, _'I thought we were finally gonna talk about what happened, but of course you got distracted.'_

'Oh right! Can you guys tell me what the hell was happening earlier?' Ichigo asked. The two spirits got serious again at the question, although that didn't last long,

 **"What happened king?! What happened! I got my name that's what happened! Your inner world is finally accessible to you now! I can train you! Ossan can train you as well! That's what happened!"** Shiro cried.

'Really? So me awakening my powers triggered you guys to finally understand yours.' Ichigo said, deciphering Shiro's yelling into a coherent sentence.

Ossan sighed amusedly in his head, _'Only you could understand what Shiro means when he's so excited. Yes, it seems you awakening your powers helped us as well, what we learned is what aspects of your powers we are, and how to teach you those powers.'_ he said.

'Oh, so I'm guessing one of you guys is my quincy powers and the other is my shinigami and hollow ones?' he asked.

 _'Yes, that's true, I'm your quincy powers and Shiro your hollow and shinigami ones. But how did you figure one would have both hollow and shinigami sides?'_

'Urahara said anything hollow is toxic to quincy, so I guessed that's how it worked.' Ichigo explained, now leaning against the counter-top, waiting for the ramen to cook.

 _'Yes, well what's good is that we can teach you all of what you need to know, although receiving extra training from somebody as powerful as Urahara would never hurt. Also, we don't have to explain everything to you, since Urahara already did.'_

 **"Hey, hey, hey, wait a second. I must have missed an episode, I thought Ichigo was gonna lose his powers to the hogyoku? What's the point in training then?"** Shiro asked.

'You're right, but you never know, maybe something crazy will happen, or maybe I'm the main character in a story, so I probably won't lose my powers.' Ichigo said while poring the ramen in a bowl.

 **"Mmh, maybe you're right, who knows, besides I'm not complaining, I want to use these powers as much as I can!"**

'Yep.' Ichigo opened the door to Rukia's new room with the steaming bowl of ramen in his hands, "Try this. You'll thank me later." he said as he placed the bowl on the nightstand.

"Thanks." Rukia said, taking a sip of it, her eyes widened, and she rushed to finish the rest of the bowl, in less than a minute she was done with it, and she looked up to find an Ichigo smirking at her with an amused look, one brow raised up.

"You must have been hungry." he said as he gave her a small pat on the back, making her release a burp too loud for a girl of her proportions. Ichigo chuckled as Rukia became red in the face trying to explain herself, finally she seemed to give up.

"You don't need to be so uptight with me, I'm laid back. I don't know how you were raised, but you don't need to be like that here." he said, lying down on the bed, his feet still touching the ground. Rukia sighed, leaning herself up against the wall.

"Thanks, although that was really good, is all food in the living world like this?" she asked.

"Well, I don't know what kind of food you have in soul society, but I'd say the food we have is pretty good." he answered, "Although if anybody ever wants you to taste anything 'vegetarian', run away." he added, shivering **(Don't kill me)**. They sat in a comfortable silence after that, Ichigo simply relaxing, not feeling the need for conversation, as he normally did. And Rukia thinking about how similar he felt to him, it really felt like he was his reincarnation or something.

"Well anyways," Ichigo said abruptly, standing up, "I don't know if you want to train me or something, to fight hollows, but I won't be free until three in the afternoon tomorrow, so you can plan around that." he told her as he walked up to the door, "Good night."

"Good night." she answered as he walked out, she lied down on the bed, suddenly feeling the exhaustion of the day catch up to her, and fell asleep.

Ichigo looked at his laptop and yawned, 'I kinda wanna finish that episode, but I'm tired, so I guess I'll sleep.' he thought as he lied down, not bothering to turn of his lights or change, and fell asleep.

* * *

Ichigo woke up, looking up at a blue sky, instantly alarmed, he got up and looked around, seeing only skyscrapers around him, 'Where the fuck am I?' he wondered, suddenly, somebody landed behind him, he turned around, only to see himself, well, himself if he was in negative, staring back at him with a wide smirk, a bit too wide, "Shiro?" the smirk of the person widened at that.

 **"Glad you guessed it! Yep, it's me! And we're in your inner world right now."** Shiro said as another person landed next to him, a man, with his face mostly covered, with sunglasses covering his eyes, his hair long and black along with his cloak, Ichigo immediately guessed who it was.

"Ossan?" the man smiled, confirming Ichigo's guess, "So, what am I doing here?" at that question, Shiro's smirk seemed to widen tenfold, as a huge white cleaver appeared in his hand, while in Ichigo's hand, the sword he had used to kill the hollow appeared.

 **"Come on King! Did you really think you wouldn't start training the second you got your powers! We can train in here too!"** Shiro yelled as he suddenly leaped at Ichigo, his massive sword coming crashing down towards the teen.

It was only pure instinct that let Ichigo react in time to bring his sword, although he still almost got crushed, as the dust cleared, the two could be seen in a power struggle, with Shiro obviously winning, after a couple seconds Shiro jumped back, letting Ichigo catch his breath, "Is this gonna be training?"

 **"Yep, until you learn my name there's nothing I can teach you aside from swordsmanship, well, swordsmanship. I don't use that, I use my instincts, as you will!"** he said as he leaped again, although this time Ichigo was ready, and once again through pure instinct managed to meet Shiro's sword in a clash, although this time it was much more balanced.

* * *

 **6 hours later...**

Ichigo and Shiro laid on the ground of the teen's inner world with Ossan looking over them. Both of them were caked in blood, sweat and dirt, tired as all living hell, yet both of them were sporting a huge smirk.

Ichigo had at first been surprised to find himself meeting Shiro's slashes so consistently, but once he stopped thinking about what he was doing, and simply let his instincts take over, it felt so natural, so liberating, so _fun._

"That was the most fun I've had in damn near my entire life, definitely the most fun I've had in the past 6 years." Ichigo said.

 **"Yep, something you get from your hollow side, it's a good thing we didn't get the hollow trait of "Kill everything and then eat it", otherwise we'd have a problem."** Shiro said, his usual excited tone more calm down because of how tired he was.

 _"As much as I hate to interrupt on your guys's fun, it's about time for Ichigo to wake up, Urahara will be at your front door at any second now."_ Ossan said, Ichigo sighed, knowing that was true.

"About that, since I was up all night in here, have I actually slept?" Ichigo asked.

 _"Yes, your body was still resting while you were in here, so you should be fine."_ Ossan said.

"Ok, good." Ichigo said as he woke himself up, opening his eyes in the real world.

He looked towards his window, not surprised to see Urahara on the sill, Ichigo looked at him with a bored look, "Why is it that I'm not surprised that you're standing at my window sill, watching me sleep? How long have you been here anyways?" he asked as he set himself up on his wall, Urahara smirked at him.

"Oh, I haven't been here that long. Anyways," the hatted man said as he jumped off the sill and landed in the middle of the room, "Have you decided?"

"Yeah, I still want the Hogyoku inside me instead of Rukia." Although this time Ichigo couldn't help a bit of doubt seep into his voice, after having experienced how exhilarating it was to use these powers, how alive it made him feel for the first time in years, he couldn't help but reconsider his choice, something Urahara seemed to notice.

"Are you sure about that Ichigo? You seem doubtful." he said, hoping Ichigo would reconsider, although that hope went away as Ichigo hardened his look.

"Just do the damn thing Urahara." he practically growled, the shop owner lifted his hands up as if to say he was innocent.

"I just want to make sure you don't regret any decisions." Urahara said, when Ichigo's look didn't change he sighed, "Ok ok, just get Kuchiki-san in here, I have her gigai on me." Ichigo nodded.

"Go downstairs, I'll get Rukia." Ichigo told him, heading for Rukia's room. He knocked on the door, entering when he heard a faint 'enter', "Morning." he said when he saw Rukia lying on her bed.

She smiled at him, "Morning. What are you here for?" she questioned.

"Urahara's here. He says he made a mistake with your gigai and is here to give you the proper one." Ichigo lied smoothly.

Rukia's smiled disappeared, "Ok, let me change and I'll be out as soon as possible." Ichigo nodded, stepping out of the room and closing the door, not a minute later Rukia came out, dressed in the same clothes that she wore yesterday.

"We're gonna have to get some clothes for you." Ichigo said.

"Yeah." she agreed.

They headed downstairs, only to see Urahara jumping around the living room inspecting everything with an enthusiastic look, "What a nice house you have here Ichigo! I wonder how you can afford that! And so big as well, what do you need such a big house for?" Urahara asked, knowing exactly the type of question he was asking, looking for his reaction. However Ichigo's look still didn't change.

"You know as well as I do the answers to your questions. So how about you give Rukia her right gigai and get out of my house." Ichigo said in a bored tone. Urahara flinched in mock hurt at that.

"So mean! Well, what can you do." Urahara said as he swiftly poked Rukia on the forehead with the tip of his cane, her soul body was ejected from the gigai, which crumbled down to the ground, Urahara then pulled out an identical gigai from somewhere in his cloak, "There you go! It might look the same, but it's very different if you're a scientist." he said as he wiggled the fingers on his free hand as if he was explaining a magic trick to a 7 year old. He handed the gigai to Rukia, "There you go! Fresh gigai! Now off you go, I have to talk to Ichigo for a moment."

Rukia looked at Ichigo hesitantly, when it came to Urahara she knew Ichigo had hidden history with him, even though he had only met him yesterday, Ichigo seemed to feel her doubt and nodded at her, "Go get used to your gigai, I just have to sort something out with geta-boshi." he said, the girl nodded, heading back upstairs and into her room. Leaving the two alone.

"Alright, let me just extract the Hogyoku from this gigai." Urahara said.

A couple minutes later the process was done, and Urahara was at Ichigo's front door, Rukia's old gigai in his arms, "What a great time it was talking with you Ichigo! Have a great day!" he said cheerfully as he walked into the street.

'Fuck this feels weird.' Ichigo thought as he looked at his hand, balling it into a fist.

 **"More like this feels wrong! I feel like I'm stuck in mud! I can already feel that damn marble sucking all my power away like a cheap hooker!"** Shiro yelled in his mind, Ichigo sighed.

'You'll have to deal with it, I hate this as much as you do.' Ichigo said.

Suddenly a voice, unfamiliar to Ichigo, Shiro and Ossan, interrupted their rumblings.

 _"And who called me a cheap hooker? Or a marble?!"_ They heard a feminine voice yell.

'What the fuck?!'/ **"WHAT THE FUCK?!"/** _"What the fuck?"_

 **"Who said that! Show yourself! Witch! Temptress! Satan!"** Shiro screamed, **"King! Get your ass in here! I'm scared!"** Ichigo sighed, no matter what the situation Shiro would always stay the same.

 _"I said that dumbass!"_ the spirit said.

 **"And where are you- whoa those are some big tits... Wait Ossan doesn't have tits! Certainly not that big!"** Shiro yelled, at that point Ichigo had gotten into his inner world, and was staring at what Shiro, and now Ossan, were looking at.

"Those really are some big tits..." Ichigo whispered to himself.

 _"I must admit..."_

 _"Excuse me! My eyes are here!"_ the spirit yelled.

"Ok, ok, I get it, but if you want me to stop starring maybe you should put some clothes on, just saying." Ichigo said, lifting his hands up. The woman rolled her eyes, clothes materializing on her body.

The woman was about 5 feet 6, with long, somewhat curly white hair, purple eyes, beautiful facial features and as was already told, a very... _voluptuous_ body, basically, she was an 11, and the clothes she had just put on didn't help that situation much.

"Ok, I'm gonna let the fact that your tits look even bigger than they did before with that shirt on slide for more important questions... is your ass real?" Ichigo asked her, his eyes widening as he looked at it, "I mean good god..."

 _"Seriously?!"_ she shrieked, making the two boys, and one man, hold their eyes in pain.

"Ok, you're really loud." she seemed to ignore that little jab as she kept rambling.

 _"Of all the things you'd ask or be surprised about with what's happening that's what you focus on! I can already tell you'll be annoying."_ she said, her voice exasperated.

 **"** **Ok then, what question would be more important that whether your ass is real or not?"** Shiro asked, the woman sighed in an even more exasperated manner.

 _"Oh I don't know! WHO THE FUCK I AM!"_ she shrieked again.

"Alright, alright, I'll ask you, just shut the fuck up, you're gonna make me go deaf." Ichigo said, she huffed at that, "So, who are you?" at the question she seemed to lose all of the frustration she had as she struck a pose that awoke some of the urges Shiro hadn't had until now.

She smirked, "I, am the Hogyoku."

The three looked at each other,

"Oh for fuck's sake/ **Oh for fuck's sake/** _So, is your ass real?"_

* * *

 **Questions, question! What's going on? Why's the Hogyoku an actual person, a really hot woman at that? Is her ass real? What's Ichigo have planned that took priority over Rukia's training? What's gonna happen? All those questions will be answered in the next chapter, so don't worry, well actually if I keep updating like I have you should worry, because I'm not promising anything, I'll say I'll try, but that's all I can say.**

 **Actually, I will promise something, this story will be updated withing the next decade, so uhhhhhh**

 **Thanks for reading.**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: *Insert bad chapter joke here*

 **Alright boys, an update the day after?! What madness is this? I don't know, I just feel like writing, so I will, DEAL WITH IT.**

 **Also, somebody asked if it was Ossan who asked whether yes or no the Hogyoku's ass was real, it was him, and also, that question will not be answered, it shall remain the one question on everybody's mind until the end of the story! What a plot...**

 **Anyways, thanks for the reviews and all that, if you're confused or want to ask questions about the story (Within reason of course) I will gladly answer.**

 **Now without further ado,**

 **LEGO!**

"Talking"

'Thinking'

 **"Demon/Hollow talking"**

 **'Demon/Hollow thinking'**

 _"Spirit Talking"_

 _'Spirit thinking'_

 **Disclaimer: Don't own Bleach.**

* * *

 **Chapter 5: *Insert bad chapter joke here***

Girls.

Ichigo had not talked much to girls before his mom died, aside from her of course, and after he had secluded himself so much after her death he barely talked to anybody, much less girls. However he had never felt awkward in front of them, when he had to talk to them, he was too indifferent to care about it, so he acted like his normal, bored self.

However, even he was surprised, and slightly proud of himself, that he wasn't stuttering and trying to hide his boner while facing what was, for all physical purposes, a goddess. His self-control was so on point that he didn't even feel any of the hormones most teenagers would be struggling to control coming up to bother him.

He was happy for that.

Such emotions, feelings, hormones, were disrupting, an inconvenience, they stopped people from thinking clearly, caused people to make horrible mistakes that they would regret for the rest of their lifes, and so he was happy that he didn't have to deal with them, or that he was good at controlling them.

"So... you're the hogyoku?" Ichigo asked tentatively.

 _"Yep."_ she answered confidently.

"The hogyoku is sentient, and on top of that, takes the form of a stupidly hot woman?" he asked, this time a bit incredulously, and with a hint of amusement.

 _"Yeah, well I can choose what I look like, but when I first came to consciousness I looked like this, so I kept the look. Looks nice, doesn't it."_ she said with a smirk.

"Yeah... looks nice." Ichigo answered, his amusement still visible in his tone, 'I would ask why I'm always in these situations, but I'm not complaining, this is much more interesting that anything normal I could be doing.'

 _"Don't think I can't hear it in your tone, young man."_ she said abruptly.

'Did she just call me young man?' "What?"

 _"What's so funny? Are you making fun of me?"_ she said with a tone that somehow made Ichigo reconsider how harmless she looked.

"Nah, it's not you. I just find it funny that while trying to create something that could 'transcend'" Ichigo said that word with a dramatic tone and while forming quotations marks with his hands, "The boundaries in between Shinigami and Hollow. Urahara somehow created a sentient being, that probably is a bit more than just that." she huffed at that, throwing her hair back.

 _"Do you really think somebody like Urahara could create a being like me? I'm light-years over anything you souls could even imagine. Urahara just got lucky finding me, he didn't even meet me when I was stuck in him. While you did, seconds after I was sealed in you on top of that, which makes you more exciting than other people, I can't wait to see what you actually are."_ her somewhat playful, fake-angry tone, had turned more serious, making Ichigo realize she was smarter and more of threat than she made herself appear as.

"So Urahara didn't create you? He found you? Then why does he say that he created the hogyoku?" Ichigo asked.

 _"He found me one day, while traveling the rukongai, he had just started researching the boundaries between shinigami and hollow back then. He just thought I was some rare artefact at a flee shop, though he soon realized I was anything from that once I randomly started glowing. He ran a few tests on me and somehow came to the conclusion that I was the answer to his research, so he played with me a bit, tinkering around, thinking he was doing something revolutionary, when in reality he was just bugging me, and taa daa, the hogyoku was born!"_ she said with fake enthusiasm.

"If Urahara didn't do anything though, how come he thought he had finally come to the conclusion of his research? Can you actually transcend the barriers between Shinigami and hollow?" Ichigo asked.

 _"Of course I can. But that's not the only thing I can do, think of me as a genie in a lantern, if you get access to me, I can fulfil all your wishes."_ she explained, Ichigo simply stared at her with a deadpan expression at that.

"So you're god?" he asked.

 _"Heh, I guess, although you have to be powerful enough for me to grant your wishes. Somebody like you, would be powerful enough to do anything, I can feel it."_ she answered.

"If you're so powerful, why don't you just do what you want?" he asked again, not liking the amount of questions he had to ask.

 _"It's like I said, I'm just a genie in a lamp, I don't have much of a will of my own, I'm just a sentient rock, the only thing I do is choose whether I want to give my powers to somebody. And you're a prime candidate."_ she said.

"So you're telling me I could be god?" he asked tentatively, his two spirits looked at him, surprised he would ask such a question, he didn't look back.

 _"I mean if you wanted to you could be, I don't really care what you use my powers for, hell, you could choose to reject this power and destroy me if you wanted to."_ she said. At that an invisible weight seemed to be lifted off of Ichigo's shoulders, as he sighed in relief.

"Pheew, that's good, I did NOT want to be a god." Shiro and Ossan visibly relaxed at that as well, "Then what about Aizen's Hogyoku?"

 _"How many questions are you gonna ask me? Aizen simply succeeded in creating something that could actually transcend the barrier between hollows and shinigami, that's all."_ she explained, in a frustrated tone.

"Wow... my respect for Urahara is going down slowly but surely." Ichigo muttered, "But, if I'm understanding what you're saying right, does that mean I won't lose my powers from having you in me?" he questioned.

"No, the only reason why I drained Urahara's reiatsu was to see if he was powerful enough to control me, and also to get his attention, so that he might meet me, as you can see that didn't work." she answered.

 **"Wait! You're saying we won't have our powers taken by the soul sucking hooker? HELL YEAH!"** he received a whack to the head for that.

"Don't call me a soul sucking hooker, mut!" she yelled.

'If he's a mut then what am I?' Ichigo thought off-handedly.

"Ok ok slow down." he interrupted, getting their attention back, "You said I could destroy you if I wanted to, why wouldn't I? I don't really want any of the power you could offer me, and you definitely can't be let loose in the wrong hands, so what's stopping me from destroying you?"

"What's stopping you from destroying me? It's simple, you're responsible enough to know that if I can't be let loose in the wrong hands, and if you 'destroy' me, I will be." she said, making Ichigo sigh.

"You can't be destroyed can you? Me destroying you would simply put you back in the wild, to be found by a random soul again." he guessed, she nodded, "But why? Where could such a powerful artifact come from?"

 _"This is how the new soul king is chosen. Once the current one grows old, I'm sent down to earth to find a soul powerful enough, that person is then chosen to be the next soul king, I've seen generations of soul kings, long before Yamamoto was even born, good and bad. Ichigo, a soul like you is practically impossible to find, in a generation there are only a handful of people that could even be considered to be the soul king, and you're by far the strongest soul I've ever encountered,_ ever." she told him. Ichigo's expression didn't change though, as if he couldn't care less about what she had just old him.

"I don't want to be the soul king. I can barely stand the feeling of utter superiority I have when I crush a bug, the feeling that, in that bug's eyes, I'm god, the one to choose between their life and death, I can barely stand that feeling, so how do you think I could handle being the soul king?" Ichigo said, shocking her.

 _'It's always the people that would make the greatest soul kings that don't want to be it.'_ she thought, _"That's sad, because with words like that, I can tell you'd make a good king. But tell me, what's different from being powerful and being the soul king? You're still bound to become powerful, the most powerful that has ever been seen, so what's different?"_

"What's different? That's easy. If I simply grow powerful, I don't have to do anything with my power, I can simply sit back, watching life unfold, I don't have a responsibility to uphold. The reason why I'm doing this whole Shinigami, hollow, whatever the fuck thing is simply because it's entertaining, it looks like something to make life more interesting, more fun, I'm not doing this for any recognition, I'm not doing this for the power, I'm doing this for fun. Battling Shiro earlier was the most fun I've ever had, I want to feel that again. If I become the soul king, that will be gone, I'll have a responsibility to uphold directly linked to my power, people will look up to me, praise me. I don't want that." Ichigo explained.

"I see, you don't feel any sort of sense of responsibility or justice do you? You understand that in the end you will die, and that it doesn't matter, so you're simply having fun, aren't you?" she asked with a smirk.

"Yep, basically."

She leaped at him, suddenly crushing him in a powerful embrace, her... assets, pressed up against his face, "Oh finally! Somebody who thinks like me! You know, in all the thousands of thousands of years I've had to tell people they were the new soul king, they would always be so uptight about it, impossible to have any fun with them! But you, I can finally have some fun with you!" she yelled as she kept up her embrace, releasing him after a few seconds.

He caught his breath, also catching a glimpse of Shiro glaring at him in jealousy, "That's good to know, I guess after so many years of living you just search for fun." he said, 'They really need to take example on the feel of a woman's breast to make their pillows, you'd sleep like a baby.' he thought offhandedly.

"You bet I just search for _fun._ " she said with a sexy smirk, "And we're gonna have a lot of fun together, trust me." she said as she walked off, her hips swaying.

'Where is she going?' Ichigo thought incredulously.

 **'Is her ass real?'**

 _'Is her ass re- oh wait, I'm the serious one, uhhh, I'll have to keep an eye on her, yeah, an_ eye _on her, figuratively, of course.'_

'Why is it that a sentient rock seems to want to have sex with me? Welp, if the sentient rock looks like that I'm not gonna complain!' Ichigo told himself as he straightened himself up and looked back at his spirits, "So, that was interesting."

 **"Yeah... interesting is the right word..."** Shiro said, his eyes still staring into the distance, as if he _might_ have been thinking about something else, Ossan looked the same, although his sunglasses hid it.

'Who'd have thought Ossan was a closet pervert...' Ichigo thought, "Well, anyways, now that that's done, I think it's about time I get going." he said as he left the inner world, leaving Shiro and Ossan to their _thoughts_.

* * *

 **In the real world, a couple seconds earlier...**

"Ichigo, are you ok?" Rukia asked, poking the unconscious body of Ichigo with her finger.

'Should I call those emergency services? An... ambulance?' she thought.

All of the sudden, Ichigo eyes opened, surprising Rukia as she fell on her butt, "Ichigo! You're awake! What happened?" she asked.

"Oh, uhh..." Ichigo stuttered, 'I can't tell her that I was in my inner world, I shouldn't be able to access it.' , "I didn't sleep much last night, so I guess I must have went to sleep when I lied down." he said, hoping she would buy the lie.

"Wow, you must have been really tired, I was poking at you for a good minute" Rukia muttered, seemingly accepting the excuse.

'Phew, good thing she seems to trust me enough to buy that.' Ichigo thought, feeling a small pang of guilt at abusing her trust, although he quickly threw that to back of his mind, "I'm leaving now, I'll be back at three in the afternoon, are you planning on going anywhere?"

"Yes, I have to go to Urahara's this morning for something, then I'm not sure, but I'll be here at three for your training." she answered.

"Ok, cya!" Ichigo said as he closed the door behind him.

'I get the feeling I'm gonna need to capitalize on the free time I have from now on, or else I might not be able to finish that anime.' Ichigo thought as he sighed to himself, the last few days had really been crazy. 'Heroes in stories always say they wish they had a normal life, I always thought that was bullshit... and I still do! This is awesome! Why would I complain about this? Sure, I might die and I won't be able to watch anime as much, but this is way more interesting than anything else life might have had for me.'

 **"That's the right way to think king!"** Shiro said.

 _"Ahh I did pick the right person, strong, fun and laid-back. This is gonna be so much fun!"_ The Hogyoku said.

'Yeah, I guess. Also, do you have anything else we could call you aside from 'Hogyoku'? it sounds kind of weird.' Ichigo asked.

 _"Oh, yeah, you can call me Mikasa."_ Mikasa said. Ichigo raised an eyebrow at the oddly simple name.

'Wow, what a normal and non-symbolical name for somebody such as you.' Ichigo said sarcastically.

 _"Listen here bud, the name I chose is perfectly fine and I won't have you judging me."_ she said in a mock defensive tone.

'Yeah, yeah, just don't start calling me Eren.' Ichigo said as he finished his walk over to where he would be 'working' for the next month:

Karakura High School

* * *

 **Duuun Duuun Duuuunnnn! What a plot twist! Oh, everybody expected it and it was pretty obvious... ok then.**

 **Sorry for the short chapter but I don't feel like I needed to make this any longer than it is, chapters will be long if they have a lot of stuff that happens in them, this one didn't.**

 **Anyways, please bless me with your beautiful reviews that I will forever be scared to open.**

 **Thanks for reading.**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Meeting an old friend.

 **Well, so much for the daily updates, but let's be honest, who thought that was actually going to be a thing? Besides, now that I'm starting school again, I'm hoping for updates once a week, but let's not even start with that.**

 **Although, updates might start coming more often since I actually have a plan for the next 5 chapters or so. Yep, that's right, I've written all my chapters so far of the top, aside from chapter 1. Such an organised person I am.**

 **And for once, I have a couple reviews to respond to, so here we go,**

 **8579: There will neither be romance, or a IchigoxYoruichi pairing, per say. I don't personally think Ichigo's personality is the type to be in a relationship, nor is Yoruichi's. Although there will still be romantic relations between Ichigo and many other women, but they will be more corresponding to Ichigo's character, I'm sure you can guess what I mean. Also, about the 'and many other women', no, this is not a harem, unless it's some special feudal Japan we're talking about, women don't work like that. Once again, those relations will be corresponding to Ichigo's character, I'm sure you can guess what I mean. Now for all the romance fans hold your pitchforks. Everybody has a soft side, and so does Ichigo, but it will take a lot of relationship development in between him and Yoruichi before that comes out, although their thoughts will betray their actions. Though if you're a hardcore romance fan I don't know what the fuck you're doing here.**

 **vampwalker709: To be honest I can't tell wether this is just a flame or an actual complaint, but regardless. There's not much I can do about your 'disgust' at Ichigo's lack of ambition, that's the way I want his character to be and I knew some people wouldn't like it. Although I hope you can still enjoy the story, if you're still reading it.**

 **Queen Mo-Freakin: In in of itself, that's a good idea for a story, and somebody should write it, but that's not the type of story I enjoy, I enjoy stories where there is only a single main character, and a story that revolves almost only around him, which is what this story is will be like, I guess 'Main-character-centric', if that's what that means. But that's still a good story idea. Although, Ichigo's sisters will be in this story, just sayin'.**

 **Anyways, enough of that...**

 **LEGO!**

"Talking"

'Thinking'

 **"Demon/Hollow talking"**

 **'Demon/Hollow thinking'**

 _"Spirit Talking"_

 _'Spirit thinking'_

 **Disclaimer: Don't own Bleach.**

* * *

 **Chapter 6: Meeting an old friend.**

'Now, a question on every person in my mind's well, mind, must be, 'Why would a kid go back to school after he's already been let out on vacation?' Well, that's a good question, turns out, it's a requirement for college. You see, the last year's school year ends before the younger ones, about a month before, and so the elder students have a requirement to go into the classes for the 1st years last month and act as a sort of 'Assistant' to the teacher. Seems pretty useless if you ask me, but it's not graded, so I'm gonna give the most half-assed performance I can, cuz I'm lazy.' Ichigo thought in his mind, as he finished he could feel the eyes of his 3 spirits staring deadpan at him.

 _"And why are you telling us this? Like we don't already know?"_ Mikasa said in his mind.

'To be honest I don't know. I guess I like talking to myself. You'll learn that after knowing me better.' Ichigo said sheepishly.

She huffed in his mind, _"I already know your entire life backwards and forwards. You're supposed to be the next Soul King! Do you really think I wouldn't check up on you?"_

'I thought it didn't matter whether the next king was good or bad?' Ichigo questioned.

She blushed in his mind, though he couldn't see, _"Maybe I was just curious, if I'm stuck in your mind I want to know what kind of person you are."_

Ichigo smirked, 'So you saw _every_ memory, right?'

 _"Yeah, why?"_ she asked.

He whistled in his mind, so he didn't appear like a lunatic whistling randomly in the school halls, 'Oh nothing, was just wondering whether you really say _every single thing._ Must have been pretty awkward, especially in my pre-teen years, I was going at it pretty crazy back then...'

 _"What do you mean?"_ she questioned, before the answer hit her, and her face lit up like a Christmas tree, _"You pervert! Of course I saw those, they were disgusting! I almost puked when one caught me by surprise!"_ she yelled, Ichigo, meanwhile, was having a hard time not bursting out laughing in the hallways, that time being made even harder by his other 2 spirits laughing to their heart's content at the memory of her seeing _it, "You're into some really weird stuff by the way, but don't worry, I don't mind."_ she said with a sensual tone in his mind. The 3 instantly went silent.

'Okay, you win that one, don't mention it...' Ichigo said, Mikasa though, wasn't done.

 _"Ooh, is that embarrassment I sense, I didn't think you could be embarrassed, don't worry, I won't tell anybody. You are a real beast by the way, 5 times in a day-"_

'Oh! Look! It's my class! Sorry, Mikasa, talk to you later, studies are important!' Ichigo said as he opened the door to class 4-A. Apparently, he was late as all the students were already seated and the teacher was almost done setting his stuff up. **(I don't know what the class number is for the crew in the series, or if there even is one, but that doesn't matter.)**

"Well! If it isn't Ichigo-kun! You're a bit late, but it doesn't matter, I'll let you off this once." Ochi-sensei said as she walked up to him.

"Yeah, sorry, I'm not used to making my way around the lower levels." Ichigo said in a bored tone as he looked towards the students in the class, his look not showing anything, although his eyes almost widened as he looked at one of the girls in the class, 'Wow, I'm happy I'm not 18 yet, it's still legal for me to look at that. What are they feeding these kids?' Ichigo thought as he spotted the girl, she had orange hair, grey eyes, and something Ichigo's eyes stayed on for almost to long. 'Temptation from every angle! Must... resist... looking at the busty chick...' his eyes struggled in between looking over the class and staying straight on the girl's assets, eventually he managed to take his eyes of them and look over the class quickly. He spotted another girl, with black hair, who looked oddly familiar to him, and a kid who looked like he could kick Ichigo's ass with his pinky, 'Okay, quick memo, don't anger that kid.'

His attention skipped back towards Ochi-sensei as she started speaking, "Class, please welcome last year student Ichigo Kurosaki, he will be assisting me for the last month to work towards his college credit, feel free to ask him any question you would ask me." Ichigo spotted the dark haired girl's eyes widening quickly at the mention of his name.

'So I do know her somehow. She does seem familiar, although I can't recall, guess I'll have to talk to her later.' Ichigo thought.

"Come on Ichigo-kun, introduce yourself." the teacher said, waving him towards the front of his class.

'Why, fuck you too.' Ichigo thought, he always hated stupid introductions like those, "My name's Ichigo Kurosaki," he almost laughed at how bored his voice sounded, even to himself, "And I can see ghosts." he said as he wiggled his fingers, his go-to when he had to introduce himself. The class snickered at that, somehow an older kid who sounded as bored as he did saying that made them laugh, 'Go figure, not like I care.' he thought as he waited for the teacher to tell him what to do.

"Go sit at my desk for now, I'll tell you when I need your help." she said, and so Ichigo sat.

'Huh, it's weird seeing a class from this perspective.' he told himself offhandedly as he studied the rest of the kids more intently. Most of them looked normal, aside from the busty chick and the giant's spiritual energy, who were slightly more above normal, the black haired chick who was looking at him every once in a while and finally a black haired guy, who's spiritual energy was so well concealed Ichigo almost couldn't sense it, but once he did, boy did he sense it. It wasn't anything compared to what people like Urahara were hiding, but compared to a normal person's, his was through the roof.

 _"He's a quincy."_ Ossan said in his head.

'Really? I thought the only line of quincies left were a family called Ishida, the same family as the guy who gave me the money? Wait, let me check the names list.' Ichigo thought as he skimmed past the list, 'Uryu Ishida, what a coincidence.' he looked into his document, 'And his father is Ryuken, oh boy, it's all linked! I wonder if he knows of me?' Ichigo had been briefed by Urahara about who Ryuken Ishida was, so he knew he would be seeing more of this Uryu.

The rest of the class went by normally, Ichigo being asked to help every once in a while. Finally, it was lunch, with Ichigo sitting up at rooftop, eating his sandwich while looking at the view of Karakura, praying that nobody came and joined him, 'Ugh, why do I jinx things...' Ichigo sighed to himself as he saw somebody sit down next to him, further looking into that person he saw it was the black haired girl that had recognized him, "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be sitting with your friends or something?" he asked, his tone bored. The girl's face took a somewhat irritated look, as her hand twitched, 'She best not try and hit me.'

"Come on Ichigo, is that any way to treat a childhood friend?" the girl asked. Ichigo turned back to look at her, his face radiating uncaring.

"And who are you?" he asked. Her face took on an even higher degree of anger.

"Oh come on! Arisawa Tatsuki! The girl who used to whoop your ass in karate everyday, did you get hit by a truck and get amnesia or something?" she practically yelled out.

'Oh, her.' Ichigo remembered, back when he was 11, the 9 year old girl who would always kick his ass when they would spar, that was one of the friends who had abandoned him when his mom died. Although he harboured no ill feelings. In fact, when he thought about it, he had abandoned his friends more than anything. "Oh, you." he muttered, going back to his sandwich.

"'Oh, you?' that's all? Are you kidding me! What happened to you? One day you're all cheery and happy-go-lucky kid who I beat everyday and the next you come to class with the face of a depressed war veteran and wordlessly slam me into the tatami mat before leaving and never coming back. What happened?" Ichigo had to retain a snort of laughter at the 'Face of a depressed war veteran' comment, that was probably what he had looked like.

"Shit happened, I realised I had better things to do than failing at beating a girl 2 years younger than me at karate, I also realised I had better things to do than karate." he said tonelessly, although his face almost flickered as he looked back at Tatsuki, and saw what he thought to be tears well up in her eyes, 'Oh fuck, what did I do now? Did she really care about me that much?'

"That's all you have to say? I was worried about you! Sensei just said not to talk to you since you were going through a hard time and..." she choked briefly, "And you just left! What kind of shit is that! I demand an explanation as to why my best friend suddenly decided to up and leave without saying a word!" she yelled, Ichigo looked around, realizing most of the class, that were on the roof, were looking at them, although it was obvious they couldn't hear the two, Ichigo wasn't looking for the attention, and so he gave a light glare at them, and most of them looked away, aside from the giant, Uryu and the busty chick.

'Those 3 again? What's up with them?' he thought. Although his attention went back towards Tatsuki when he heard a small sniff. It was true, he thought, seeing her again had awoken some of memories from before his mom died, most of them which had been locked away in self-defense, and he did remember her, she was his best friend back then. Although he had seen her more as a rival, "Listen, I'm sorry. I'll explain, just calm down." she glared at him at that, "Yeah, wrong thing to say."

"So are you gonna tell me?" she asked.

"Yeah, yeah. When I was 12, my mom died, that's why I stopped going to Karate, I got all depressed and shit, I closed up. Didn't open up again, is that a valid explanation?" he explained, her eyes had fully widened by then, the tears that had started welling up earlier still there.

"Oh god! I'm so sorry, I-I didn't mean to open that back up for you..." she said, the anger previously present in her voice gone for guilt, Ichigo waved his hand.

"Don't worry, I got over it by now. Not gonna get anywhere in life if I stay stuck in those memories." Ichigo said. His face had, by then, lost it's usual bored look for one he would have when talking to Shiro or Ossan, it felt nice talking to somebody who he used to be such close friends with.

"But, what did you do? If I remember correctly, your mom raised you alone." she asked, on top of that, she also knew how precious Ichigo's mother was to him, although the aftermath of that was obvious, no longer was the happy-go-lucky kid she used to know, replaced with a cold, distant person, which she couldn't really blame him for. Though he did seem to have opened up more as their conversation went along, something she was glad for.

"Yeah, I was left alone, but it turns out my mom knew some people pretty high up there who owed her a favour I guess, since I got checks and a 'caretaker' by a certain Ryuken Ishida." he explained, to which her eyes widened.

"Ishida, is he related to Uryu?" she asked.

"Yep, his father, funny how life works." he said.

And so, for the first time in what was probably Ichigo's life, he caught up with an old friend, telling them how his life had gone for that 6 years, and them telling him how their life had gone. Although Ichigo had of course avoided the spiritual side of it all.

"Wow, looked like your life was kind of sucky for the past 6 years." she said, Ichigo snorted at that.

"Yeah, you could say that." he agreed.

"So, you've basically been alone since your mom died?" she asked, the tentativeness she would usually have at asking such a question not there, she had learned that Ichigo wasn't sensitive towards questions most people would be sensitive to. Something that made her respect him even more, he could accept life for what it was, he wasn't bitter about anything that had happened to him, although his life had been especially shitty, and he was still a funny guy to be around once you talked to him for a bit.

"Yeah, I didn't really try making friends after my mom died, I was too busy soaking up in my depression, and avoiding the friends who might have wanted to help me, after a while I got used to it, and kind of liked it. Still do." he said. Although Tatsuki didn't seem to be having that, as she stood up abruptly.

"None of that! I'll be damned if you leave me in the dust after I've just seen you again, and what kind of friend would I be if I just left you alone, with no other friends?" she said.

'She's making me sound a lot more pathetic than I actually am.' he thought with an internal deadpan face, 'I also don't like where this is going.' evidently he was right as Tatsuki grabbed him roughly by the arm and started dragging him towards the pack of her friends, forcing him to get up.

"Oh hell no! I'll be damned if I have to do this! Much less with all your girl friends! Besides they're all 3 years younger than me!" he half-yelled as he fought against her grip, 'Damn, she's too strong for me to stop her without flipping her over.'

"I don't care. You're gonna talk to these people and make friends if you don't want to die. Besides, it's not all girls, there's Keigo, Mizuiro and Chad." she said with a small smirk.

"That doesn't make it any better, besides, I doubt they want to make friends with me." he said, at that she suddenly stopped and turned around to face him.

"And why is that?" she asked.

"I don't know? Why you they want to meet some senior guy who's their teacher's assistant?" he replied.

"That's not a valid excuse!" she said suddenly as she grabbed his arm again, finally succeeding in dragging him all the way towards the group, who's attention had been taken away by something else.

"Hello! My name is Rukia Kuchiki and I'm an exchange student from overseas! Glad to meet you all!" she said as she bowed briefly, when her eye caught a head of spiky orange hair and she looked up, eyes widening as she saw who it was, "Ichigo?"

"Rukia?" he replied helpfully.

"What are you doing here?" they both asked at the same time, the group was now looking at both of them confusedly.

"You know her?" Tatsuki asked.

"Yeah," he said quickly, turning back to Rukia, "I'm here for college credit, acting as teacher's assistant. And you?"

"Uhm," she stuttered, trying to find a way to convey her message to Ichigo without divulging too much information, "Urahara-san said this was a good school for me to go to while I was staying here." the look of understanding, conveyed by Ichigo's face going back to normal, was all she needed.

'Urahara decided she needed to go to school while she stayed here. It's like he planned all this for me to meet all these people. Ahh, who am I kidding, of course he did, and I'm not complaining.' he thought as he glanced briefly at Tatsuki.

"Wait a second." Tatsuki interrupted, "How do you two know each other?"

"Oh, that. Since my house was empty I decided to put the rooms up to rent for a bit of money, and Rukia is currently renting one of the rooms while she stays here." Ichigo came up with a lie quickly, although he would never in his life do anything like what he was saying, he liked his privacy too much.

"Oh, okay."

"Um, Tatsuki-chan, how you know Kurosaki-san?" the busty chick, who Ichigo wanted a name to identify her with, since he wasn't feeling too good with calling that, said.

"Oh, yeah, I know Ichigo from a while back, he was in my karate class when we were kids, I would whoop his ass all the time, he used to be my best friend as well, although something happened and we stopped being friends." Tatsuki explained.

"Oooh, was it some romantic drama that caused you guys to come apart? I didn't think you the type to be like that, Tatsuki-chan." one of the random girls, who Ichigo would probably never remember the name to, said.

"No, it wasn't." Ichigo's bored voice resonated, "Shit happened, it wasn't anything in between us." he said.

"Oh," the girl said in a disappointed voice, "And here I was hoping Tatsuki maybe had a romantic story to tell us..." Tatsuki's face had turned into a snarl as the conversation went on.

"It wasn't anything like that! Do you really think I would be romantically attracted to a weakling like him? I couldn't date somebody who's so pathetic." she said with a glorified 'hmff' as she crossed her arms, Ichigo meanwhile, couldn't help but raise an eyebrow in mirth.

"Oh really now? Do you really think I'm as pathetic as I used to be?" he saw two of the guys, the smaller ones, whisper to themselves when he said that, something about 'he's dead now' which almost made him snort.

"If your arms are nothing to go by then yes." she replied.

"Oh yeah? Well I'll have you know that size doesn't matter." he said with a smirk, making her blush.

"Perv." she said as she knocked him on the head.

"Not much I can do about it." Ichigo said with a smirk as he rubbed his head, it felt nice to have this sort of friendship with somebody, even if it was only for a short amount of time.

And so their conversation went on, with Ichigo and Rukia learning about the group, well, most of the group. Ichigo had only bothered remembering the names of Chad, Inoue, Keigo and Mizuiro. Chad, who's real name was Sado Yasotura, but Ichigo insisted on calling Chad, was the silent type, although his presence seemingly added to the group, even though he rarely ever talked. Inoue Orihime, she was... particular, a bubbly, creative and very weird girl, somewhat lovable because of all those quirks, although her taste in food was more or less, gross. Keigo was a hyperactive, and almost annoying, person, but Ichigo could tell he was a good person at heart, and Mizuiro was simply there, in conversation but not really, although Ichigo learned he liked older women, which was an odd fact to know about what was almost a stranger. The other girls in the group aside from Inoue and Tatsuki Ichigo hadn't even bothered remembering their names, call it rude, but he couldn't be asked.

He had also spotted Uryu staring at him often, it was a very well disguised glance, but when he did spot it, he found hatred buried deep in his eyes, he wondered what he had done to cause that hatred, but quickly put it in the back of his mind, if the kid had a problem with him, he could come and tell him about it, otherwise, Ichigo didn't care.

At the end of lunch, despite Keigo's fervent protests, Ichigo and Tatsuki had organised a spar at the end of class, to see who was the strongest after 6 years, so Ichigo was now looking forward to that.

The afternoon went by without much trouble, Rukia introduced herself to the class and thankfully no hollow had appeared to be taken care of.

Finally, class ended, and now the entire group that was on the roof for lunch, along with the entire karate class, were sitting in the gymnasium, watching as Ichigo and Tatsuki squared each other up.

"You know, it's not too late to give up, right?" Tatsuki said.

"Aren't you the one who said 'All talk and no action'? Or are you so scared to fight me that you're trying to get me to give up?" Ichigo said with a smirk, making Tatsuki snarl.

"Yeah, you're right, don't quit, I gotta whoop your ass first, Sensei, start the spar!" Tatsuki said, the teacher brought his hand down, and Tatsuki was gone, running towards Ichigo, who was standing still, arms to his sides.

'I could beat her with one move given how she's running towards me, but if she still takes as much pride in her karate skills as she used to I shouldn't do that. Ugh, that's why I like being impartial towards everybody, I don't have to protect their feelings or whatever, guess I'll stall this out.' Ichigo thought with a sigh as he brought his arms up.

The fight went on for about 5 minutes, ending up with Tatsuki being flat on her stomach, her right arm behind her back and Ichigo's knee holding her down.

The fight hadn't been as easy as Ichigo had thought, as he was a bit winded. As a matter of fact, after the start of the fight, he hadn't spotted many other openings in her defense, "Yield?" Ichigo asked, Tatsuki snarled.

"Yield." She muttered, "Now get off me."

"Gladly." Ichigo said with a smirk as he got up, bringing a hand to help her up, which she took, "That was harder than I expected, there was one hole in your defense at the very start of the fight, but aside from that, I didn't spot much." Ichigo complimented.

"Ugh, are you a teacher now? How did you get so good anyways? I didn't spot any hole in your defense." she asked begrudgingly, as much as she hated to admit it, Ichigo had outclassed her.

"I trained myself a bit when I was bored, and for some reason my orange hair seems to be target for violence by brainless idiots." Ichigo said.

"Hmmpf," she said as she crossed her hands and turned away from him, "Don't get too cocky, I'll beat you again soon."

"Sure you will." he replied with a smirk. They turned towards the spectator, who were shocked at the result of the fight.

"Remind me never to anger Kurosaki-san, Mizuiro." Keigo whispered.

"Only if you do the same for me." Mizuiro replied.

"Wow! That was so cool! I've never seen Tatuski be beaten, maybe this is gonna be the start of a rivalry, like in those animes!" Inoue said excitedly.

'Why is it the that some of the hottest girls are the most innocent ones, I really feel wrong now.' Ichigo thought, "Yeah, it just might." he replied.

* * *

 **Okay, this chapter was somewhat filler I guess, although I quite enjoyed delving into pure character and relationship development, since I never had before, I would like to know how I did, so review your impressions please.**

 **Also, I wrote the last few paragraphs at 6 a.m. in my bed before the first day of school, so apologies if it isn't as good as normal.**

 **Anyways, that's all I have to say, the next update will come within the next generation, don't worry,**

 **Thanks for reading.**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Humans are selfish.

 **Another semi-consistent update! I wonder when I will stop acting as if these are unusual? I don't think I ever will, simply because I'm still surprising myself.**

 **Although for as much as I don't have faith in myself to uphold this, I will say it! I guarantee at least 1 update every week, at least 1! If not more! So let's hope I can do it.**

 **Also, I was scrolling through the other fanfictions about bleach, to see how mine was doing compared to others that were of similar length, I thought I was doing just about as well as any other writer, but it turns out this story is doing better than I thought it was! So thank you all for the reviews, favs and follows. I'm also surprised at how little hate, or 'flames' I'm getting, but I'm not complaining.**

 **On a last note, thanks to the couple people that gave me a bit of feedback on how I handled the characters personality last chapter, I'm happy to see I did a decent job at it.**

 **Anyways, that's all I have to say so,**

 **LEGO!**

"Talking"

'Thinking'

 **"Demon/Hollow talking"**

 **'Demon/Hollow thinking'**

 _"Spirit Talking"_

 _'Spirit thinking'_

 **Disclaimer: Don't own Bleach.**

 **Little additional note, I usually don't write here after I've finished writing the chapter, but this is just a little reading suggestion. I honestly suggest you read this while listening to music, something that you can chill out to. I wrote this chapter at 1 a.m in my bed while listening to music that I find 'chill' and it honestly brought me in my feels, although that might be because I was able to picture all the scenes so vividly. So it might not work for you, but this is just a little something to maybe make your reading experience better.**

* * *

 **Chapter 7: Humans are selfish.**

It had been around a week since Ichigo had started being the assistant to class 4-A's teacher, and he was surprised by how welcoming the little group he had his talk with the first day had been since then. Tatsuki was, he felt, the same way he remembered her, and he couldn't help but feel they had a sort of brother-sister relationship, along with a brother-sister rivalry. Rukia also seemed to have gotten more comfortable with him, almost to a point where he felt she looked up to him, why? He didn't know, he still felt a bit guilty for getting her involved in this entire mess, even though in the bigger scheme of things it was inevitable, even preferable. Although at times he caught her looking at him with a distant and pained look in her eyes, she would instantly look away when he met her gaze back though, he had told himself she would talk to him about it when she was comfortable with it. Inoue was a very bubbly, friendly person, easy to talk to about stupid things, have a laugh or two with, he definitely couldn't see her in a romantic way though, despite her... assets, although she seemed like a reliable friend, Tatsuki picked her friends well, he thought.

'Well, aside from me...' he thought somewhat bitterly.

It all came back around to how short this situation was going to last, and if it did last longer than intended, how destructive it would be for the teens he had come to be friends with. He couldn't help but feel horribly selfish at the thought of staying friends with them, bringing them with him in this crazy situation. He might be able to protect them, he told himself, but humans were creatures of doubt, and he couldn't help but fear what would happen if he couldn't protect them, he knew he was supposed to be super powerful, Soul King whatever, but he didn't feel he should go into anything with such confidence, that would turn him complacent, unable to doubt himself, and if that happened, they would all be doomed.

But still, he was selfish.

Why wouldn't he be? It was human nature to look out for oneself, humans had offspring, not because they wanted to see their first-born's step, the smile on their significant others face, but because their brains told them too, why? Because that was how one would survive, letting their genes go down generations and generations, all humans did was for themselves. And that made sense, why would you defend others, if you couldn't defend yourself? Because you cared about them? But why did you care about them? Because without them _you_ would feel bad. It all came full circle, Ichigo wanted to bring them into this mess, not because it would benefit them, but because it would benefit him, make him feel good, it was selfish. Yet he couldn't fault himself for it.

That didn't mean he was going to do it. He still recognized what the right choice was to him.

'I'm sure Urahara has a memory eraser., of all the things he has.' he thought.

He might go back to where he was not 2 weeks ago, stuck in a numb, limbo like state, but then again, he didn't mind that, he had lived like that for several years, and he loved it. So why didn't want to go back to it? Why did the thought of it make him feel empty?

"Fuck." he said harshly, in a low tone, as to not alert Rukia, he was gripping his heart, 'I can't believe myself, I used to laugh at idiots like me. Why can't I go back to how I was before, numb? It felt so much better...' he thought, recognizing how pathetic he sounded, and feeling a rush from how ashamed with himself he was at his own voice, brought himself up, leaning against his wall. And made his face stoic, closing his eyes as his bangs went to cover them. 'I need to build that wall in between me and my emotions that I used to have, I can't think clearly anymore, with all this bullshit swirling around me.'. And so he focused on his own mind, something he was good at after all the meditation he had done, and pictured a wall, it was crumbled though, but one could see it used to be extremely high, he didn't want to rebuild it to its full height, that would bring him back to how he was when his mom had just died. He knew exactly what level he wanted it to be. He still wanted to feel emotions like amusement and enjoyment, but he wanted to get rid of his ability to care for people, it was ruining him and the people he might care for. He would still be the same he was before all this had happened, he could have the same conversations with Rukia and Tatsuki that he used to have, but they would feel a difference, he would feel a difference.

And so he focused, for what felt like hours, eyes clenched shut and brow sweating, until he got to the last bloc, flying on it's own into place. However, he hesitated at the last second, as pictures of Tatsuki, crying, Inoue, Chad and Rukia popped into his mind. his hesitation didn't last long though, as he steeled himself and forced the bloc to come into place, feeling what was perhaps one of the most painful emotions he had ever felt at that moment, but that emotion went away, replaced with a familiar, cold feeling, a numb feeling, he almost laughed out loud as he recognised the feeling, this was what he was looking for, that numbness. He thought back to Tatsuki's crying face, and smiled to himself as he felt nothing from it. It wasn't cynical, he just simply didn't care about it. He thought about other things, that would, for example, make him laugh, one of the many conversations he had had with Shiro and Ossan, and laughed, he was happy about that, he still wanted to laugh, feel excitement, and he had succeeded in that. He thought about another emotion, lust. Thinking about a couple examples he was happy to recognise that fire in his stomach.

He threw his head back and smiled, a smile he hadn't had on face for a while, and laughed, a hollow laugh, emotionless.

He might destroy himself while doing this, but he couldn't find it in himself to care about that either.

* * *

 ** _Ichigo's inner world..._**

 _"Are you sure you want to let this happen?"_ Mikasa asked as the three of them watched on while Ichigo continued with the rebuilding of his wall. Shiro and Ossan both had emotionless faces on as well.

 _"We're not going to stop him, Ichigo's trying to convert himself back to how he was before the incident with Rukia happened. He's realised that his emotions are getting in his way, and he thinks they need to be taken down. I won't stop him, he's still worthy of my power and respect. Besides, this won't get rid of his kindness and personality, it will just stop his emotions from interrupting him. He still understands what is right and wrong, and what he has to do."_ Ossan explained.

 _"Yes, but aren't you scared that the treatment he's giving to those other guys won't apply to you as well?"_ She questioned. Ossan shook his head, while Shiro answered, his tone much more sober.

 **"No, we've been together forever and our bond is too strong for that, besides, we aren't interrupting him, he recognises we're essential to his sanity and power, he also recognises that we'll always be there for him. I'm confident he'll never wrong us, unless we wrong him. Besides, his core emotions won't change, he'll still feel all the emotions I care about, fun, amusement, excitement, lust,"** He looked briefly at Mikasa as he said that, his look not perverted, just making an example, **"And his lust for a good fight."** his look became more crazed as he said those words, his grin widening as he stared at the ground intently, **"He'll essentially be a hollow in what he craves, he'll just be able to control it with a high degree of intelligence. If anything, this just made him more deadly."** He paused for a bit, silence hanging, **"What about you? Don't you have any misgivings about this?"**

 _"No, I said it already, I don't have much of a will of my one. But if anything, this is good for me, I'll admit to have been attracted to Ichigo's personality in a sexual way, and if anything this only makes him more appealing. If he needs to, I'll be here to satisfy his lust."_ she explained with a perfectly straight face, as if she was just stating an everyday fact. Ossan glanced at her.

 _"Why would a creature like you, that apparently has no will of their own, be sexually attracted to anything?"_ He questioned, curious.

 _"Humans choose to follow others subconsciously, through charisma, and other factors, including their 'sexual appeal' if you will, so I was created with the ability to feel those emotions, it is an unsaid part of figuring out whether somebody is worthy of being Soul King. If the Soul King is a socially awkward person, nobody will follow him."_ she explained.

 **"I'm guessing Ichigo has some of that 'Sexual appeal'?"** Shiro said in an amused tone, she didn't answer, as the question was rhetorical, **"So what do you plan to do about that? Are you gonna make a move, or just sit back and wait for Ichigo to do something?"**

 _"As I said, I just have sexual feelings towards Ichigo, and if he's anything like I think he is, he'll only feel sexual feelings towards me, it'll happen when it happens."_ she said, her arms crossed, as they watched Ichigo finish up.

 **"What if Ichigo finds other people to satisfy his lust on?"** Shiro questioned, how embarrassing the conversation would be to other people not felt for them, she huffed at that question.

 _"I'm sure he will, but I don't care. He said it best himself, all human desires are selfish. The only reason I want to fuck him is because I want to satisfy my lust, and I feel he's a good person to do that with, it goes the same way around. There are no other emotions aside from lust in between the two of us."_ she explained.

Shiro chuckled dryly, **"Yeah, I guess."**

* * *

 _ **Back in Ichigo's room...**_

He spent the rest of his Saturday morning finishing up on his anime watch. He had already figured out a training plan with his spirits, and he was free to do whatever he wanted at the moment. The entire time he couldn't help but relish in how amazing it felt to be back to how he was before, the numbness made him feel so full, talking and joking with his spirits made him feel so full. His spirits had fortunately not questioned what he had done. Which he should have expected, he knew them well enough to know they wouldn't care much about what this. Knowing he only had to back himself up, protect himself, also lifted a great weight off his shoulders, sure, Rukia was still part of this, but she could take care of herself, and after she went back to Soul Society safe, he wouldn't owe her anything anymore. He could go back to how he was before, alone. Not being weighed down by knowing other people cared for him. It made him feel free.

Somebody knocked at the door, "Come in." he said in a blank tone.

Rukia walked into the room, almost taking a double take at the lack of presence she felt from Ichigo. Over the last week, Ichigo had stopped containing the energy that made him feel so similar to Kaien, and she would always feel embraced by it when she walked in the room, it made wherever she was in with him feel warm, full.

Now the room felt cold, empty. She would usually feel as if her legs were carried when she walked in Ichigo's room, now, they felt heavy, she had to support herself to walk in here. 'What happened?' she thought, all that energy that over the past week Ichigo had finally stopped containing was now back in its cage, locked even tighter. His face was even more emotionless that it usually was, his eyes empty, "Are you okay?" she asked as she put the bag she carrying on her desk, the voice that answered her was so different from the one she had gotten used to, that if he wasn't standing in front of her, she would have thought he was a different person.

"I'm fine. Why?" he asked, although his tone lacked interest, care, or any emotions for that matter.

"N-nevermind," she stuttered, "I was at Urahara's and he gave me the mod soul I had been waiting for." she said as she reached into the small bad and pulled out a pez dispenser, Ichigo raised an eyebrow.

"And what is that?" he asked, his voice gaining a bit of interest. Relieving Rukia.

'So he isn't completely dead.' she thought, "A mod soul can be inserted into a body that doesn't have a soul, so now you can be in your soul body while your real body is doing other things." she answered.

"Sounds useful." he said as he caught the small candy and inserted it into his mouth, a small flash and his soul body was out of his real body, with his real body still moving. it straightened out and stood on front of Ichigo, his hands at his sides in a military position.

"Mod soul, Raiza, at your service!" the mod soul said, it's voice sounding weird coming out of Ichigo's mouth. **(I'll address the fact that there's no Kon in the author's note at the end.)**

"Lose the strict attitude, it's annoying." Ichigo said in a bored tone, "I'm not gonna use you for now, although I'm gonna need to tweak you around so you act like me." he told the mod soul in a more annoyed way than anything, as if he would rather be doing something else.

"I guess you'll be fine to take of him without my help?" Rukia asked.

"Huh, oh yeah, you can go do whatever you want." Ichigo said.

Rukia walked out, closing the door behind her and leaning on it. The air outside of Ichigo's room felt lighter, 'What happened to you, Ichigo?' she thought sadly.

* * *

 **Later in the afternoon...**

Ichigo had spend all of 30 minutes training the mod soul how to act like him, thankfully he had gotten a competent soul and the process didn't take longer than it had to. He had then spent the rest of the day in his room, watching more anime, because he was just a weeb like that. And that was what he wanted to do, not like there was anything better to be done. He heard the door opening and closing and, figuring he should go down, if only simply out of respect and common courtesy, he walked down the stairs into the living room, where Rukia was.

"Oh! Ichigo. You surprised me." Rukia said, she would usually be able to feel Ichigo coming, but his recent change had made him undetectable.

He grabbed a can of coke and plopped down on the couch, "Sorry about that." he said, "So what's up?" he asked, his voice containing a bit of interest, just because he had gone back to his old ways, didn't mean he had to be a dick to everybody.

"I crossed Inoue on the way back, she got hit by a car." she said, Ichigo's eyebrows rose a bit.

"Wow, really? Did she go to the hospital or something?" he questioned.

"No, I thought she should, but she insisted she was fine, although I feel there's something darker to this, she had a hollow mark on her leg." Ichigo tilted his head.

"A hollow mark?" he hadn't been told about that by Urahara.

"Yes. It's a mark given by a hollow, when a human is tagged by it it often means that a hollow is coming after them." she explained.

"But why would a hollow chase after one specific human?"

"I didn't tell you this because I didn't think I'd need to, but let me ask you something first. Does Inoue have any family that died recently?" Rukia asked, her tone worried.

"Yes, her brother died a couple years ago, unfortunately my mom had died back then so there was no clinic near enough to save him before he passed away." he had been explained by Tatsuki about Sora's death. He truly felt for the girl, even now, he had been in the same situation, she had obviously copped with it in a different way.

Rukia's expression suddenly took on one of panic, "We need to go to Inoue's house now!" she said as she rushed for her glove, extracting herself from her gigai, "Come on! Inoue's in danger." Ichigo got up, not in a particularly fast way and used Rukia's glove to extract himself from his body.

"Well then let's go, I'm guessing you'll tell me what the deal is on the way?" Ichigo said as they walked out.

They ran across the rooftops of Karakura, Rukia obviously panicked, but Ichigo was calm and collected, to him, this was just like killing another hollow, not his friend's brother who had turned into a hollow.

If this had been a couple hours ago, he might have been stressing a bit, so he was happy that he had done what he had done, it made it easier for him to think in situations like these, so he could do his job better.

Rukia had already explained to Ichigo what the deal was with the hollow, and Ichigo couldn't help but imagine how he would feel had that happened to him, with his mother. He felt a pang of pain at the thought of that, he might have closed most of his emotions towards other people off, but he would never allow himself to forget his mother, not only because he couldn't, but also because he didn't want to, she was a major part of his life and he couldn't simply forget that.

He cared about his mother, who was dead, aside from that, the only people he cared about were his spirits, who weren't as much people as they were extensions of himself.

He looked up at the moon, thinking on whether or not he had made the right choice for himself, and to extent, for the people he was trying to forget. He came to the same conclusion he had already came to, they were better off without him, in every way, and while he might not have been better off without them, he didn't feel right putting himself before them, for once, he wasn't selfish. So he had come up with the easiest way to forget them-

He stopped thinking about that. The more he thought about the illusion he had set up for himself, the more the illusion faded away. And that wasn't what he wanted.

They landed on the roof opposite to where they could sense Inoue, and Tatsuki's presence, it made sense for them to be spending their Saturday night together, they were best friends after all, 'Although if Tatsuki has to eat Inoue's food I can only pray for her.'

"We're there." Rukia said, Ichigo looked at her with a deadpan expression.

"Yeah, I realized." he said dryly, Rukia smirked at that, maybe he hadn't changed that much, he had just gone back to how he was when she had first met him, although a bit worst, for some reason, which she would discover at some point.

They waited for a couple minutes, feeling the area for the hollow, "It's coming from over there." Ichigo said as he pointed at the direction opposite of the moon, "Should be here in a couple minutes."

"Yes, do you want to deal with it yourself? You don't seem to be bothered by the fact that it might be Inoue's brother." Rukia replied.

Ichigo smirked, the smirk he had when he fought Shiro, although not as big, this clearly wouldn't be as impressive of a fight, "Be it Inoue's brother or not, if it's like all the other hollows I've seen, it'll be purified." Ichigo said as he drew his sword, letting his excitement at the idea of a fight with an above average hollow be shown.

Rukia looked at him in awe, the light from the moon behind him only adding to the scene, black and white wisps of energy had started seeping from Ichigo's body, interloping with each other. His sword was now a pure black, with the hilt being white, he had drawn it in his right hand, holding it up to his side, parallel to the ground. His head was held high, his face covered with a smirk she had never seen on his face. His eyes were starring straight at the direction of where the hollow was coming from, and they had... _changed colors?!_ 'Impossible!' she thought, shocked. His sclera was now black, with the irises being white, although faint traces of a blue light could be seen. 'What is this? Reiatsu is seeping from his body, yet I feel no pressure... it's impossible for him to be in shikai either, is he emitting this aura without the use of reiryoku?!' she thought, all this was overwhelming her, on one side she felt like his simple presence would make her fall to her knees, on the other he wasn't emitting any pressure, and he was _Ichigo,_ 'What happened to him?' she had thought about this possibility for awhile now, that Ichigo had his own powers, but this wasn't anything like what she expecting, this was... she couldn't explain this.

Ichigo stared straight at where they felt the hollow coming from, he would admit, that he had let his hollow side influence him for a bit, letting him release a bit more than he had originally intended to, but he couldn't resist it, the idea of fighting whatever was coming towards him was too tempting, it made him shake with excitement, he was aware he would probably slice through the hollow like butter, and be done with it in one strike, then have to explain the entire situation to Rukia, but he couldn't care less, if he could even get a couple seconds of that feeling that he could only get in a fight, he would do it. Was he addicted? 'Nah, this isn't that unhealthy of an addiction, I think... although I should probably just go to Urahara's for a fight.'. He could still think rationally if he wanted to, but he didn't, he simply wanted to let his instincts guide him, of course, he knew when to take control again, he could distinguish in between situations like these and actual life threatening fights.

The hollow came from out of the ground, it's large, snake-like body flying in the air as he stared at the two shinigami in front of him, "Get out of my way!" he screeched as he leaped at Ichigo, normally, a hollow would run away when faced with such spiritual pressure coming from a shinigami, but the thing was, Ichigo wasn't emitting reiatsu, this was simply his aura when he was excited for a fight, the hollow didn't feel intimidated by it though, as he slashed at Ichigo, who jumped up.

'Forget killing this thing in one-shot, I'm gonna make this last!' he thought as he sheathed his sword, coming down to punch the hollow from the back. It went flying into the nearest building, which thankfully, wasn't Orihime's.

"Ichigo! What are you doing! You can't kill the hollow without your sword!" Rukia yelled in a panic. What was he thinking?

Ichigo either didn't hear, or didn't care about what Rukia had said, as he dived back at the hollow, who was stumbling to get back up, delivering to it a kick in the stomach.

Now, Ichigo had originally meant not to aim for Orihime's house this fight, but, let's say things don't always go to plan.

The hollow went crashing towards Orihime's apartment, making a truck sized hole right in front of where Tatsuki and Orihime were peacefully having dinner.

'Aw, fuck.' Ichigo thought, his eyes turning back to their normal colour and his aura settling down, he knew he couldn't fight like this if people got involved.

The hollow stumbled to bring itself back up, it's vision blocked by it's hands, which were covering it's face, because of the extreme pain coming from that region. It groaned, which sounded more like a horrific yell, and slowly brought it's hands off of it's face, only to be shocked at what he saw.

Right in front of him, laying on the ground, a panicked expression on her face, was Orihime, along with her was a black haired girl who he recognized as Tatsuki, the one who had stole his sister from him.

"Brother! Sora, is that you?!" Orihime yelled out, her hand covering her mouth as tears formed at the edges of her eyes.

The hollow questioned how Orihime had recognized it, when it realized why, it's mask had been ripped off by the rough landing he had had.

"Yes, it's me Orihime." he said in a soft voice, too soft for a hollow.

"What happened to you?" she whispered, tears now freely falling from her eyes.

"Can't you see? It's all because of _you!_ " he hissed in a spiteful voice. Orihime crumbled down to her knees, overwhelmed by what was happening.

"No... how did I do this to you?"

"You forgot about me! You stopped praying for me! You replaced me with that girl!" he yelled out, "WHY DID YOU FORGET ABOUT ME!" he screamed, bringing his hand down to Orihime.

"W-what...?" The hollow whispered, it's arm had been blocked by Ichigo's, who was facing Orihime, who was now looking up, at Ichigo.

"I-ichigo?" she stuttered. Ichigo, despite himself, couldn't help but smile sadly at Orihime, out of sympathy, he couldn't imagine what he would feel like if the situation had been flipped over and his mother had turned into a hollow.

"Don't worry about this. It doesn't concern you." he said softly, looking back towards the hollow, his look dark, although not like when his hollow side came up.

"No! That's my brother! I need to help him!" she yelled as she got up, trying to run past him, although she didn't get far, as Ichigo grabbed her by the shoulder, "What are you doing! Let me help him!" she yelled, fighting against Ichigo's grip.

Ichigo sighed sadly, bringing the girl, who was now crying her eyes out, in front of him, "I'm sorry Orihime, but that's not your brother anymore, he can't be saved, the only way for me to save him is to purify him." he said softly.

The girl crumbled onto Ichigo, her hands covering her face as she cried into his chest, "Just save him... please..." she whispered as she fell unconscious. Ichigo, with one hand, lay her softly on the ground, and looked back towards the hollow, his eyes hidden by the shadows.

The entire time while Ichigo was 'talking' to Orihime, he had kept his grip on the hollow's arm, not letting it move.

He was done with this. This should never happen to anyone, although it was his fault for letting the hollow crash into Orihime's apartment. He unsheathed his sword with his free hand, "You're done for." he whispered as he shunpoed faster than the hollow could see, and slashed at it's face.

Orihime's brother disappeared in a shower of spirit particles, Ichigo sheathed his sword back, staring back at the scene that had been caused by his recklessness.

Orihime's wall had been ruined, hopefully he could do something about that, or at least Urahara could. Orihime and Tatsuki were on the ground, unconscious, Orihime probably left with a life-scarring memory. He sighed to himself.

'I changed myself to stop my emotions for other people from interrupting me, but if I'm gonna let the high I get from a fight cause this, I might as well not have done anything. I won't let myself be so reckless again.' he chastised himself.

Rukia landed next to Ichigo, he didn't look at her, "Don't worry, Urahara can erase their memories of tonight and fix the wall by tomorrow morning, I'll just tell him about this later." he didn't answer, although a small sigh could be heard from him.

They stayed silent for a couple minutes after that, staring at the scene in front of them, until Rukia spoke up again, "What was that, Ichigo?" she asked.

Ichigo turned around again, his face neutral again, "Nothing you need to worry about. It won't interrupt me again." Ichigo responded in a tone of finality, "I'll let you tell Urahara about this. See you later."

"Ichigo wait!.." too late, he had already vanished, at that moment, Urahara appeared as well, his smirk still plastered on his face.

"Well isn't this a mess you guys caused! Good thing I'm here! I'll have all this fixed by tomorrow morning." he said in his obnoxious voice.

"Yes, do that." Rukia said, not looking at him as she vanished as well.

Urahara, left alone, let a serious expression cross his face.

"What was that aura Ichigo was emitting? It's nothing anybody should be able to emit, it wasn't reiryoku. Then what was it?" he asked himself. He didn't question Ichigo's change in eye color, he knew he had hollow powers that he could already control, but that energy was a different case, "It felt like he was imposing absolute authority, well, the level was too low for it to feel like that, but I can tell it could be that potent. Well, no matter thinking about this right now." Urahara discarded the thought to be back of his mind, for when he was back in his lab, and looked at the scene in front of him

"Now, what do I do with this?"

* * *

 **Okay, this chapter was as bit more serious, so I'll be a bit more serious here.**

 **First off, about Ichigo's change in attitude; he isn't completely emotionless, he's forcing his emotions back, because he's judged that they're getting in his way. But if you noticed, I said it was an illusion, so it will eventually break, he won't stay like this forever, I'm not saying this to reassure anybody, I'm just saying.**

 **Then, about Kon. To be honest, I don't feel he needs to be a character, that goes the same for all the other mod souls. Besides, Ichigo would probably just crush Kon if he had to deal with him now.**

 **Now, again on Ichigo, I understand his character might seem a bit complicated, so feel free to ask questions about it, but understand that some parts of his mind might not make sense, or will contradict each other, that's simply how humans work.**

 **About Ichigo's change in sword color and his iris being white instead of yellow, I did it because I thought it would look kinda cool, but there is also a bit of meaning to it if anybody can figure it out, i might end up explaining it in later author's notes, it's not that complicated.**

 **I think that's about all that needs to be said, although I might be forgetting some things, so as always feel free to ask questions, post reviews and such.**

 **Once again, all reviews and feedback about how I handled Ichigo's character are appreciated, although I feel I did a worst job this time.**

 **As I said, I will try to keep the updates at once a week, and hopefully I'll be able to get one out during the weekend.**

 **Thanks for reading.**

 **(Also, I do realize there was a lot of angst this chapter, it won't be like that normally, this won't become a trend.)**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 7:

 **Okay so, after what I consider a fiasco of character development and explanation. I feel I owe you guys an apology, and maybe I'll try and explain to you guys why he did what he did. Since I feel that unless you're in my perspective, that is to say, the author's, you won't understand his choice.**

 **Basically, the reason why he decided to go back to how he was before he met Rukia, Tatsuki and the others, despite how much he welcomed such a change, was because he understood that in the end, either that time with them would end prematurely, or either he would have to drag them into his situation, which he didn't want to do, well aside from Rukia, who is already in this. The reason why he didn't simply let the situation end naturally, was because he fears being out of control of a situation, he fears being helpless, that fear being ingrained into him when his mother died and he was left lost. He vowed never to be a helpless puppy again. That is also the main reason as to why he makes himself so distant, cold. He wants to do things himself, not rely on others, if he has to rely on others, that means he can't do it himself, so he would be helpless if left alone. He wants to either deal with this situation alone, or die trying, now you might say, 'Doesn't that contradict his fear of helplessness, that he wouldn't mind dying while trying?'. Here comes the reasoning for that, he doesn't care about his own life, as such, he won't feel helpless if it was to be put in danger. However, he has developed care for Tatsuki, Rukia, and the others, which means they might cause him more of the emotional pain he's tried so hard to stay away from.**

 **I hope this helped a bit to explain the situation. To put it shortly, Ichigo became uncaring of everybody again because he was scared he would be helpless again if something out of his control was to happen to them.**

 **Of course, there is more to his character than that, but each person is a giant ocean of things like these that can be analyzed forever, so there's no need to dwell on it. I just wanted to explain why he did what he did, besides, as I said last chapter, he won't be like that for long, he simply set an illusion that he didn't care about his friends to protect himself, eventually that illusion will break and he'll have to deal with his fears.**

 **Anyways, that's all I have to say, at least I think.**

 **So without further ado...**

 **LEGO!**

"Talking"

'Thinking'

 **"Demon/Hollow talking"**

 **'Demon/Hollow thinking'**

 _"Spirit Talking"_

 _'Spirit thinking'_

 **Disclaimer: Don't own Bleach.**

* * *

 **Chapter 7:**

It had been a week since the incident with Inoue's brother, and since then, nothing particularly spectacular had happened. But Ichigo could feel it. He could feel it everywhere.

The eyes, staring at him constantly.

The tension rising as his time as an incognito soul reaper went on.

He could feel it all.

The eyes of his 'friends', who were worried about him. The eyes of what could only be described as a higher being. Although it was probably the soul society and Aizen.

He felt it all, it was suffocating, heavy, the only moment where he felt like he wasn't being observed was when he was in his inner world, which was why he had been in there so much over the past week. That had also led to him becoming exponentially more powerful, how much, he couldn't tell until he fought somebody other than Shiro, but if the amount of craters that were left after each fight was an indication of anything, it was a lot.

With all the tension Ichigo had been feeling for the past week, it was only natural for him to be skeptical when the mailman rang at his door.

He usually didn't get mail that warranted his door being knocked on, and he definitely hadn't ordered anything. So he stared at the small package with suspicion. he couldn't feel anything from it, but it felt like whatever was in there was important.

 **"Arrrgh! Just open the damn thing already! Staring at it isn't gonna make it any less dangerous, you're driving me crazy!"** Shiro yelled in his mind.

'You're right, I might as well open it.' Ichigo said as he took his knife and opened it. The name of the person who had delivered the package to him wasn't on the outside, so the only way for him to get any information was to open it.

The first thing he saw when he peered into the package was a small letter. He unfolded it:

 _"From Ryuken Ishida."_

'So it's from him. I guess this will have something to do with my quincy powers.' Ichigo thought as he unfolded the carefully protected object that he had been delivered.

It was a pendant, made of what looked like diamonds, although Ichigo couldn't be sure, 'Does he think he's my sugar daddy or something?' Ichigo thought as he analysed it more in depth.

It was a five pointed cross, looking much like a star. That was all that could be said about it, it was pretty plain. Although Ichigo could feel something from it, 'Ossan, you're the resident quincy expert here. What is this?'

 _"This is a quincy cross. It is used to channel your quincy powers. It looks like I'll finally be able to teach you about your quincy side."_ Ossan said, sounding somewhat satisfied, " _Although it is odd that it's in the form of a pendant, it would usually be a bracelet."_

'Huh, interesting. Guess it's back to my inner world.' Ichigo thought as he headed back into his room, ready to spend the rest of his week-end training his quincy powers. Aware he would have to take breaks, to prevent Rukia from getting suspicious, and to do his soul reaper job.

* * *

 _ **Two days later...**_

Ichigo and Rukia walked to school together, in silence, as had become custom over the past week. With Ichigo being in his thoughts during most of the walk.

She had tried to ask Ichigo if he was okay, but each time he found a clever way to change the subject. It was obvious he didn't want to talk about it. But she felt she had to help him. Although it looked he was really spaced out, so she didn't bother him.

The discovery of his new quincy powers had been, interesting, to say the least, Ossan had said his powers were very different from what most quincies had, although they were still stupidly powerful, even after 2 days. The level of power he was at after 2 weeks was mind-boggling to his spirits apparently, as most people didn't pick up on their powers so fast according to them. Ichigo didn't have much to say to that, using his powers just felt... natural, like second nature. Shiro said that was because of his hollow side, most hollows could use their powers instinctually although the draw back to that was that they lacked intelligence, so they couldn't sharpen their skills, or use them strategically, something Ichigo could do. That explanation made sense to him and his spirits, although it was still weird to go from above average human to super powered spirit in two weeks. But Ichigo didn't complain, the last 2 weeks had probably been the most exciting of his life. And he still couldn't get enough of fighting all out against Shiro.

They made it in front of the school, going up to the third floor. Rukia went to sit down at her table, greeting her small group of friends enthusiastically, while Ichigo simply walked past them, giving them a quiet, uncaring, greeting.

The group look at Ichigo sadly as walked by, Tatsuki not being sad so much as mad.

"What's up with him?" she said angrily, but not loud enough for Ichigo to hear, "From one day to another he goes back to how he was when his mom died. What the fuck is wrong with his mind?"

"I don't know, he hasn't talked to me about it, although something might have happened that I didn't hear about." Rukia said sadly. Tatsuki gritted her teeth.

"He better have a good explanation then." she said.

And so the day went on, and Ichigo was on his night patrol with Rukia, killing the last hollow in the area, "And so the mighty shrieker falls." Ichigo said out loud.

"Yes, good job, not many shinigami could do that." Rukia said as Ichigo sheathed his sword.

"Well, in case you hadn't noticed, I'm not like most shinigami." Ichigo said.

"That sure is right." she agreed as they made their way back home.

Ichigo lied down in his bed, ready to go the bed to train his powers more, he looked to his left, checking what time it was. It had just turned midnight when he looked at his clock, Incidentally, right as the clock struck midnight it started raining outside. Ichigo checked his clock again, this time looking at the date.

June 17th. Ichigo smiled to himself, 'How fitting, rain on this day, that's good.'

'I like the rain.' he thought as he closed his eyes.

* * *

Ichigo woke up to sound of rain pattering on his roof, although it wasn't light out, which meant he had woken up sometime in the middle of the night.

He tried closing his eyes again, although after 15 minutes of trying, he gave up and lifted the covers from his body, leaning against the wall.

June 17th. That date should hold all sorts of meaning to him, although he couldn't find any. He relaxed at the peaceful sound of the rain, leaning his head back against the wall, 'Why can't I find it in myself to hate this day? To hate the rain?' he thought.

The sound of something falling distracted him from his thoughts, he turned on his lamp and looked around, looking for what had caused the noise, when his eyes caught a small binder on the ground. It had probably fallen from atop his closet. Ichigo got up, planning to put it back where it belonged, when he saw what it looked like, 'There's no way.' he thought as he read the tag on it.

 _"Masaki portfolio"_

He chuckled to himself, 'Of course there is a way. How fitting.'

Feeling that there was an obvious reason to this line of events he picked up the binder, bringing it back with him to his bed and lying back down under the covers, the binder on his lap. He opened it, immediately being greeted by a picture of his mother. She looked happy, smiling brightly.

He was left speechless by it, how long had it been since he had seen a picture of his mother? He had totally forgotten what she looked like. He balled his fist tightly.

He felt ashamed.

How could he forget what she looked like, how? He thought to himself as he kept going through it, his blinks becoming less frequent, his fists balling tighter, his emotions running more rampant after each picture. Before he knew it he had reached the last page, having mindlessly, but still very consciously, gone through the entirety of it, he turned the last page, his hand moving automatically, and stared at the picture.

"Mom..." he said softly, his voice wavering.

The picture had his mother, with her normal smile, holding a new-born Ichigo in her hands, she looked so beautiful, he thought, she didn't fit next to an abomination such as him. He ran his hands on the picture, carefully avoiding touching the small child she was holding.

He couldn't take it anymore, as he closed his eyes, which by now tears had welled up in them, tightly, pressing his forehead against the picture, his tears now flowing openly.

"Mom, I'm so sorry..." he whispered as he kept venting his emotions, crying into his palms.

He cried well into the night, for at least an hour, his spirits wordlessly looking over him as he fell asleep, more tired than he had been in forever.

* * *

He woke up to the dull sound of his alarm, which he didn't bother turning off as he stared at the ceiling, his eyes still red from last night, the rain still pattering on his roof.

He felt ashamed, from forgetting what his mother looked like, to crying the way he did, but he couldn't help it. He felt so much lighter now. He closed his eyes, admitting that his small moment of weakness might have been for the better.

"Ichigo! Wake up! We're gonna be late!" Rukia exclaimed. Ichigo smiled, her voice felt nice to his ears, it was almost as if he hadn't heard it the entire week, she opened the door, "Ichigo!" she yelled, this time sound more pissed than anything, "Get-" she paused as she walked in.

Her legs felt lighter, like they were being carried, the room felt warm, full. She smiled brightly, "Ichigo?" she said, although this time she sounded much happier.

"I'm awake." he said softly, "You can come in." his voice sounded raspy, almost as if he had a cold.

She gladly walked into his room, although she was a bit concerned at the sound of his voice, "Ichigo, are you okay?" she asked as she looked in the direction of Ichigo's bed, only to see him looking out his window , his face not fully visible.

He turned to her, his eyes were red, puffy, he had obviously been crying, "Yes Rukia, I'm fine." he said with a smile, one she hadn't seen in a week, she smiled back. She could finally believe him.

* * *

They walked down the path to the school in silence, although this time it was a comfortable silence. The sound of the rain filling in.

She didn't know what had happened to Ichigo last night, but she didn't try to ask, it had obviously helped him some way or another, and that was all she cared about, he would tell her about his problems if he wanted to.

Ichigo still was distant, but he wasn't as cold as he had been before, at least emotions did seem to flit across his face, which Rukia was happy about.

They made their way to the school, doing the same routine that they had been doing for the past two weeks, although this time when they went to greet their friends, Ichigo went with Rukia and talked to them, something that seemed to surprise the group, although they didn't complain. Maybe he had sorted out his problems, they figured. Tatsuki had at first seemed pissed that Ichigo had simply acted as if nothing happened, but she couldn't find it in herself to make a scene about it, she didn't want to complain about a problem that had been solved, so she just soaked up Ichigo's presence in the group. Appreciating that her big brother was back.

Although that entire time Ichigo couldn't forget one thing.

That this wouldn't last.

* * *

The day went on as any day would have, although this time Ichigo did all the things he would have done before. He had figured that even if this wouldn't last forever, he would enjoy the short amount of time it did.

And so now he was walking home with Rukia, the rain still going strong although it had been active since the literal start of the day. When he remembered where he had wanted to go after what had happened the other night.

He would go to his mother's grave for the first, and last time. He had discovered last night that he hadn't really dealt with his mother's death the way he should have, he had simply put it away in the back of his mind, and now that it had come up again, he would deal with it the right way.

"I want to go somewhere alone for a couple hours, I'll be back before 8." Ichigo said suddenly, surprising Rukia.

"Oh, okay, where are you going?" she asked.

"The cemetery." he said as took a left, leaving Rukia alone.

'The cemetery? Why would he go there?' she thought, the only person he could be visiting was his mother... 'Wait! What date is it?' she questioned as she looked at her phone, 'June 17th. Isn't that the day he said his mom died?'

She knew she should leave Ichigo alone to deal with his problem, especially one like this, but she couldn't help but feel like she should follow him, she had a gut feeling she should go after him. So she took her mod soul in her hand, swallowing it, "Go home and wait." she ordered, the mod soul nodded, leaping off.

Ichigo made his way up the hill towards the cemetery, wondering what he was doing all this for. What would seeing his mother's grave do for him? Maybe it would help him feel more at peace. But he couldn't help but feel he had to go there, like it was an obligation in the process of putting this behind him.

He felt a strong hollow in the forest, near the cemetery, he figured he would simply deal with it after visiting her grave, and ignored it.

He got all the way up the hill, and found his mother's grave. Which he was now staring at emotionlessly. Even though he didn't feel much from looking at the grave. He owed it to his mother to visit her, he hadn't felt it until the night before, but he felt ashamed for how he had, or hadn't dealt with his mother's death, not in how his personality had changed, but in how he had completely ignored anything that had to do with her after what had happened, he had gone to her funeral for a couple minutes before leaving, and after that he had tried to forget about her. He hadn't thought of her, he hadn't visited her grave. He had done nothing. He was fixing that now.

Rukia looked at him from behind the trees, he was simply looking at his mother's grave. It looked like he wasn't doing anything, but she could tell he was mending his wounds, "You can come out now, Rukia." he said, Rukia, caught by surprise, blushed as she crept out of her hiding place.

"Sorry," she said, looking down, "I felt I should follow you, I don't know why, I simply feel like something's going to happen here." she said.

"So you feel it too?" Ichigo said as he looked away from the grave. The hollow was getting nearer, faster. It also felt familiar somehow.

The rain was still falling, as a matter of fact, it was falling harder than it had the entire day, and by now Ichigo was soaked, as he hadn't taken a umbrella, but he didn't care, he enjoyed the rain.

"Yes, I sense a hollow somewhere close." she replied.

Ichigo looked around the cemetery, the hollow had gotten close to them, before hiding it's presence, 'So this one's smart enough to try and lay a trap? This might be interesting.' Ichigo thought as he looked at all the individual graves, being caught by surprise as he found somebody, a small girl, staring at one, not facing him, although he would have recognised her anywhere.

"Rukia, leave this hollow to me, he and I have some history." Ichigo said, although it was true he held no grudge against the hollow, for it was simply a wild animal. He felt once again this was part of the process towards putting his mother's death behind him, "Come out! I know you're here!" Ichigo yelled.

A large hollow landed loudly on the ground. This hollow held itself on four feet, it's body closer to the ground, it was also green, looking like it belonged in a swamp, **"Well, what do we have here! Two tasty souls! I can't wait to get rid of you so I can taste the girl, they always taste better!"** Ichigo smirked.

"I can't refute that, girls definitely _taste_ better than guys, although I don't think we're talking about the same thing." Ichigo said.

"Oh, do we have a joker here?" the hollow snarled, "Do you know who I am?"

"No, and to be honest I don't care." Ichigo said calmly as he popped the mod soul in his mouth, his soul body ejecting from his normal one.

"Ichigo, that's grand fisher! This hollow's been hunted for 50 years with no shinigami able to kill it! You don't stand a chance against him!" Rukia yelled out.

Ichigo looked back at her, "What are you talking about? This hollow's weak," Ichigo said emotionlessly as he drew his sword, "I know how it works, it preys on people's fears, people's kindness, then exploits their weakness. I can guarantee you it has a trick up it's sleeve that saved it for the past 50 years." Ichigo looked back at the hollow, "So tell me, Grand Fisher. What have you been using for the past 50 years to evade shinigami? I'll let you use your little trick on me, and see if you still think you're so invulnerable." the hollow smirked, as it's fingernail extended, speeding towards Ichigo, who stood still.

"Ichigo!" Rukia yelled.

"What are you screaming about? I'm fine." Ichigo said calmly as the dust cleared, revealing Ichigo, holding the extended nail in his hand, although he had let it pierce his skin. The nail came back towards the hollow, "So tell me, Grand Fisher. What's your trick, what are you gonna use to defeat me?" Ichigo said with a cocky smirk.

"Oh, I remember you, I killed your mother a long time ago, yes, she was especially tasty." Rukia's eyes widened at that. "You want to know what I'm gonna use to kill you, gaki? This is what I'm going to use." he said as a tentacle extended from his body, from out of it sprouted the head and body of a beautiful woman, Ichigo's mother, "Tell me, gaki. Can you cut through your mother? Will you be able to kill your own mother? the hollow said cockily.

Ichigo's look was still calm as ever though, "What? You really expect me to believe this is my mother? My mother's dead, and no cheap replica of yours is gonna make me believe the opposite." he said calmly, right before he disappeared, the hollow panicked as it's target seemingly vanished, only to reappear milliseconds later, it's sword tip pointed at the woman's head.

"It would be an insult to my mother to let myself be fooled by this." Ichigo said as he stabbed the woman. Blood didn't gush out of it, instead it simply split in half, like cutting a mannequin.

The hollow reared back, "Impossible! You cut through your own mother?!" the hollow yelled.

Ichigo growled, he was getting fed up of the hollow calling that thing his mother, "That wasn't my mother, how stupid do you think I am? Is that really the technique shinigami over the past 50 years have died to?"

The hollow was panicking now, **'There's no way I can defeat him now, I have to retreat.'** it thought, Ichigo saw it's legs tensing, getting ready to jump.

'I think the fuck not.' Ichigo thought as he disappeared, reappearing behind the hollow, his sword stained with it's blood, while the hollow disappeared in a shower of spirit particles, the rain clearing up at that moment as well, 'The rain's going away...' he thought, he realised it then, he felt lighter, so much lighter, he felt he could fly, 'I think I did it.' he smiled internally as he stared up to the sky. He could finally put his mother's death behind him, he could really move on.

"Well that was easy." Ichigo said with a smirk as he walked back to his body, going back into it. Rukia was still stunned into silence by what had happened, "Rukia? It was easy, wasn't it?" he told her, snapping her out of her thoughts.

She looked at Ichigo, at his care-free, smiling expression after what had just happened, and figured that if Ichigo didn't care about what had happened, she didn't have to either.

"Yes, yes it was."

* * *

 **Here goes chapter 8!**

 **Alright, I think I did a better job at the whole character development thing this chapter, although constructive criticism is still wanted, so go ham!**

 **I can't think of much else to say, so if you guys have any questions, feel free to ask them.**

 **Thanks for reading.**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Outplayed.

 **Alright boys! Chapter 9 of Hybrid and shit is officially gonna start to go down! Enough waiting around the main story is coming! So buckle up and get ready to cringe at my shitty ass writing and enjoy the ride.**

 **Oh and also thanks for the couple reviews I've gotten on chapter 8 when I'm writing this.**

 **LEGO!**

"Talking"

'Thinking'

 **"Demon/Hollow talking"**

 **'Demon/Hollow thinking'**

 _"Spirit Talking"_

 _'Spirit thinking'_

 **Disclaimer: Don't own Bleach.**

* * *

 **Chapter 9: Outplayed.**

It was a couple days after the Grand Fisher incident, Rukia hadn't questioned what had happened since then, she had figured that Ichigo didn't really care about the fact that the hollow had killed his mother. Which was something that made her respect him even more, being able to disregard the human want for revenge and replace it with common sense was something not many could do.

It was now Friday, three weeks since Ichigo's life had been flipped around. And Ichigo and Rukia were walking home, as they normally would after a day of school.

Ichigo suddenly stopped, "You can come out now, Ishida." he said, Rukia stopped, confused as to what he was talking about.

"What do you-"

"I'm surprised you were able to sense me, Kurosaki." she heard a voice say, turning towards the sound of the voice she saw Uryu Ishida, her classmate, dressed in a white garb.

"I don't know what's so surprising about that." Ichigo said, his hands in his pockets, "You think I haven't noticed you staring at me for the past three weeks? I must say it was quite weird receiving that kind of attention, from a guy three years my younger no less." he said with a smirk.

Ishida grit his teeth, "Shut up, shinigami! I haven't come here to talk to you, I've come here to prove that you shinigami aren't needed to protect people from hollows." Ishida yelled.

"Oh really now? Well why don't you tell me who could replace the shinigami? I wouldn't complain if somebody could do my job." Ichigo asked.

"You shinigami scum aren't needed here, the quincies can do your job better than you ever could." Ishida said as a small cross fell down from his sleeve, into his hand, he seemed to channel energy into the cross, as a bow, made of blue light, suddenly erupted from his hand, he pointed the bow towards Ichigo.

"Why the hatred to the shinigami? More importantly, why the hatred towards me and Rukia? What did we do to you?" Ichigo questioned.

"You shinigami killed my grandfather, who had done nothing to you! You all think you're the only thing keeping this world together. I've come to show you that you aren't needed." Ishida said as he let his arrow fly. It sped towards Ichigo, who didn't panic as he caught it in his hand, and broke it in half. Ishida looked shocked for a second, before he regained his composure.

"I see, one small incident with Shinigami and you think we're all the anti-christ or something, I think you're more racist than anything. What makes you think me and Rukia are the same as the shinigami that killed your grandfather?" Ichigo asked.

Ishida grit his teeth, deep inside, he knew that Ichigo was right, but the part of his brain that could be rational about shinigami had shut off long ago, "None of your arguments will help you here, shinigami." Ishida said as he took out a small pill, "I've only come here to challenge you. This is a hollow bait, it will attract hollows in masses towards Karakura, whoever kills more hollows while the bait is active wins, and gets the right to protect Karakura." Ishida said.

'Damn it, I can't snatch the bait out of his hands in my normal body.' Ichigo thought, "Really? You would endanger the entire population of Karakura over a stupid grudge?"

"Nobody in Karakura will die, I wouldn't say I could defend Karakura if I couldn't even protect the city from a small hollow invasion." Ishida said. Ichigo sighed, he knew the only way he was gonna stop the kid was if he used his quincy powers, which he didn't want to show Rukia.

"Fine." Ichigo said, "but if I even hear of one person dying from this, I'll kill you." Ishida gulped at the tone of Ichigo's voice, before recomposing himself.

"Your threats won't do anything to me, for nobody will die. This bait will last until sunset. Are you ready?" Ishida asked, tightening his grip on the bait.

Ichigo sighed, looking at Rukia, who nodded, "Sure."

Ishida destroyed the bait, it burst in a small shower of powder.

Ichigo tensed as he felt the effect it had on him, he knew it would bother him, seeing as he was part-hollow, but the effect it had on him was bigger than he thought it would be. Either hollow baits always were always that effective, or this one was stronger than most, which wasn't a good thing.

He closed his eyes as he felt them change colors, trying to control himself, 'Shiro, can you try and stop this?' he asked, although he knew Shiro was probably going through the same thing as him.

 _"It seems Shiro was more affected by the bait than you were. He turned feral almost the second it was activated. The only way I was able to stop him was by fighting him."_ Ichigo heard Ossan say, the sound of crashing going on behind, _"Sorry, it seems you're on your own for now, unless Mikasa can help you."_

'I'll be fine.' Ichigo said as finally managed to control his urges, managing to get rid of his want to kill, while at the same time keeping his heightened senses that he would get when his hollow side would come up.

He could now sense every single hollow in Karakura town, it was pretty overwhelming, 'There's no way he meant for the hollow bait to be that strong. He can't be that stupid.' he thought, "Come on Rukia, we have a lot of work to do." he said as he popped his mod soul, while Rukia did the same.

And so for the next 2 hours they fought the hollows that arrived in Karakura relentlessly, with Ichigo constantly checking if a hollow was getting close to a populated area, he was somewhat happy to see that Ishida was doing his job, killing a decent amount of hollows, although he was nowhere as close as Ichigo's count.

"576." Ichigo kept counting, he didn't know why he was keeping count, he knew for a fact he was doing a better job that Ishida, and could just come up with a random number, but he still counted. He had to admit, killing hollows like this was pretty fun.

He had long since ditched Rukia, telling her it would be better if they split, but in reality he just wanted free roam to go as fast as he wanted to, making him countless times more efficient.

Ichigo suddenly felt three surges in spiritual pressure, they weren't a hollow's though, and as he looked more into them he was surprised to realise whose they were, 'Those energies are Tatsuki's, Inoue's and Chad's. What?' he thought, not expecting to actually get an answer.

 _"Well huh, you see..."_ he heard Mikasa say sheepishly in his mind, _"The combination of their spiritual pressure and their strong wishes for various things, kind of maybe forced my hand to give them powers."_ she explained, and even though he wasn't in front of her, he knew Ichigo would be staring deadpan at her if he could.

'So you mean to tell me that since they have a slightly above average spiritual pressure, and some wishes, you just grant them powers? That doesn't seem like a very responsible way of giving out powers.' he said.

She huffed in his mind, _"Who do you think I am? I don't just give out powers to random people. First of all, their spiritual energies wasn't only slightly above average, they were way above average. The only reason why you think they're slightly above average is because you're stupidly, ridiculously, unimaginably, on an ungodly level of above average. Second of all, their wishes were pure, even I could tell that. Third of all, I know they're worthy, if only because they're personal friends of the next Soul King. Fourth of all, and this didn't actually go into my thought process but hell, it works, doesn't this solve your problem of being afraid of them getting hurt? Trust me when I say they'll be able to protect themselves."_ she explained to him.

He sighed, slashing another hollow, 'I guess I agree with you, but I don't just want to impose this life on them, even though they can still make their own choice.'

 _"How about you let them decide how they want their life to happen? You just assume they don't want to be part of this, even though you wanted something like this to happen to you for the longest time."_ she said, sounding somewhat exasperated.

'Yes, but their situation is different.'

 _"Pfft, different? Please. Tell me who would deny the chance to be part of what is essentially a shonen anime?"_ she replied. Ichigo smirked.

'Yeah, you're right.' he slashed through another one, 'I just hope they're okay.'

* * *

 **With Inoue and Tatsuki, before the surges in energy...**

Inoue and Tatsuki were on their way to the orange haired girl's house, for the dinners they usually had, talking about anything, as they usually did.

Something caught Tatsuki's eye, she looked the way she had seen something only to see a blurry figure sneaking into a dark alley, "Did you see anything there, Inoue?" she said, pointing in the direction of the alley.

"Oh yeah! Wait, you saw it too? I just thought it was my mind making something up." she replied, "It looked like something blurry that went into that alley, no?" she asked.

"Yes." Tatsuki replied as she walked up to the point where she was facing the alley from the other side of the street, she saw nothing, "Huh, guess it was just my imagination." she muttered, going to keep walking, Inoue followed, before they both stopped dead in their tracks, their body seemingly paralysed by the fear that had just overcame them.

Tatsuki forced herself to turn around, only to come face to face with the most terrifying thing she had ever seen. A giant monster... thing, it was huge, at least the size of a small house, it held itself mainly on it's hind legs, although it still used it's arms to support itself, it was crimson red, with a horrible white mask, garnered with different tribal symbols. That wasn't the most terrifying thing about it though, it's presence was what made her want to run away like a scared schoolgirl, which she was not, "W-what... is t-that?" she stuttered, her eyes wide.

Inoue finally managed to turn herself around, only to almost faint at what she saw, "What's going on Tatsuki? What is that?!" she yelled.

"I don't know! Just run!" she yelled as she saw the giant creature move it's arm up, obviously aiming to hit them. She forced herself to run towards Inoue, who was too scared to move, and pushed them out the way, they landed only a couple meters away from where the fist did.

"Come on Inoue!" she exclaimed. Inoue this time, managed to recompose herself, and ran after her.

They ran for what felt like forever, before they were out of breath, not able to run anymore, with the creature still hot on their tail. "Damn it!" Tatsuki yelled.

"T-tatsuki..." she heard Inoue stutter, "I-it's here..." she looked towards where Inoue was pointing, only to see the monster only a couple steps away from them.

(Cliche cringe incoming...)

'Fuck fuck fuck. Come on, I'm not gonna die like this! I'm not gonna let Inoue die this!' Feeling a second wind from her motivation she brought herself back up, feeling a fire burning in her. "You want a piece of me! Come get it!" The creature bellowed as it brought it's arm up.

"Tatsuki!" Inoue screamed.

The fire grew in her, brighter and brighter as the fist got closer. She brought her hand up, instinctively knowing what to do as her fist lit on fire. Feeling too pumped up to notice her fist had just actually lit on fire, and it didn't hurt.

The fist got closer, till it was inches from her. She met it with a war cry.

The fire from her fist grew several times in size as it completely recovered the creature's body, incinerating it as it was burned to a crisp

Tatsuki fell to her knees, breathing heavily, 'What... the fuck... was that?!' she thought.

"Tatsuki! Oh my god!" she heard Inoue yell, turning towards her she smirked, giving her a thumbs up with her remaining arm...

'Wait! My remaining arm?!' she thought as she stared in shock at the stump that was now her right arm, suddenly feeling the excruciating pain of losing her arm, and the burn she had given herself.

Even though her arm had completely burned up, it was still bleeding profusely, and all she could do was try to apply pressure to the stump, although that served useless.

"Om my god Tatsuki!" Inoue yelled, tears flowing from her eyes.

"Don't worry, I'm fine." Tatsuki said as she spit up some blood, apparently that hadn't only fucked up her arm. Suddenly, she was hit with a huge wave of exhaustion, probably the result of what had happened, 'Damn, I just want to go to sleep right now.' she thought, her eyes getting heavier.

Inoue saw that, "No Tatsuki, don't go to sleep!" she yelled.

She wanted to stay awake, she really did, but it was so tempting... just five minutes...

She fell to the ground, unconscious, and soon to be dead, "No! Tatsuki!" she cried, crying into her chest.

"Stop crying hime, we can still save her." she heard a soft feminine voice say in next to her. She looked towards it, only to see five small, what looked to be fairies.

"W-what?" she asked.

"It's a long story, but that can be explained later, right now, you want to save your friend, right?"

"Yes!" she exclaimed.

"Ok, the just say, 'Soten Kisshun, I reject!' and we'll do the job for you." the fairy said. **(Somebody tell me if what's actually what she says, I'm not gonna look back through the episodes just to see.)**

"Ok. Soten Kisshun, I reject!" she said, and, as if by magic, two of the spirits went on either side of Tatsuki's body, and formed a yellow barrier around her, "W-what is that?" she asked.

"It's complicated, we'll try and explain it to you later." the fairy said.

Inoue watched on in awe as Tatsuki's arm seemingly recomposed from nothing, and after a couple minutes, she was back up.

She opened her eyes slowly, feeling like she hadn't opened them in a hundred years, only to see Inoue's tear stained face, tinted by yellow, "W-what?" she asked.

"Oh! Tatsuki!" Inoue yelled, the barrier disappearing as she went to hug her. Tatsuki, after a couple minutes of trying to figure out what had happened, hugged her back.

She felt Inoue become heavier, 'Did she?' she lifted her, she was sleeping, 'Of course she did.' she thought fondly. 'Although I must admit.' she yawned, 'The idea of a nap does sound nice... just five minutes...' she thought as she closed her eyes.

Urahara watched on, although he tried not to pay attention to most of the scene, it felt weird to watch, until he was sure both of them were asleep. When he jumped down to where they were, Yoruichi on his shoulder, "That's two out of three. Yoruichi, you mind taking these two? I'll go get the giant." he said.

Yoruichi jumped of his shoulder, going back to her human form, which Urahara didn't pay much attention to, he was used to it, "Sure." she said nonchalantly, taking the two on her shoulders. Urahara nodded, jumping off.

* * *

 **With Chad, while Inoue and Tatsuki were fighting...**

Something felt off to Chad ever since the past hour or so, he felt like he was being watched, by what, he couldn't tell, but he could definitely feel it, and it was unnerving him.

He heard a crash not far away and, deciding he should go check it out, ran towards it.

He ended up in a dark alleyway, his eyes fixed on what he could only described as a blurry monster, there wasn't much else to say, he could somewhat tell what it looked like, but there wasn't much more he could analyse.

The monster though, seemed to be very keen in analysing Chad, as the second it's eyes landed on him, he felt a terrifying chill go down his spine, followed by a shock of fear, going down to his bones. He blinked, his eyes wide, he could now see the monster.

It looked like a giant lizard, it's tongue long, not being kept in it's mouth, with green scales, and a terrifying white mask, the normal eyes a lizard would have replaced by piercing red eyes, **"Well, what do we have here? A tasty soul! Isn't it my lucky day!"** The lizard hissed, it's voice as terrifying as one would expect.

Chad took a second to debate on his next course of actions, questioning whether he could outrun the thing, and swiftly came to the conclusion that he couldn't. So if he couldn't outrun it, the only thing he could do was...

He brought his hands up in a battle ready position, 'If there's one thing Ichigo taught me, it's that I should use what I'm given, these fists weren't created to hurt people, they were made to protect. And I'll use them for that.' he thought as he ran towards the creature, throwing a punch at it, that it swiftly dodged, bringing it's tail down to strike Chad, who brought his hands up, although he was still blown back towards the nearest wall. He picked himself up, breathing a bit heavier, and went for a second punch.

He went for several punches, all of them missing their target, and with him getting blown back into a wall, but he wasn't giving up, each punch he gave made a bigger hole in the wall, and each punch he gave he could feel his strength getting higher, till the energy felt like it was flowing out of him.

He paused for a second, catching his breath and focusing, he knew the creature wouldn't go for a strike, it was having to much fun. He brought the energy towards his arm, feeling like it was normal.

He felt his right arm morph, looking at it disbelievingly as it went from a normal arm to a armor plated black and dark red one. He flexed his arm, it felt natural. What he did next also felt natural.

He brought his arm back, focusing his energy into it, it glowed as the energy built up, finally feeling he had built it up as much as he was going to, he punched towards the hollow, all the energy being released in a huge blast that almost blew him back.

When he looked back where the creature used to be, he was somewhat surprised to see it had basically been deleted. He brought his right arm up, balling his fist as a test, "Brazo Derecha de Gigante." he muttered, the name rolled off his tongue effortlessly.

He heard clapping behind him, and turned around, greeted by a man wearing a sandal hat, a green haori and sandals, "Wow, that was impressive! Great name as well!" the man said enthusiastically.

"What do you want?" Chad asked dully, keeping his arm in it's new form.

"Now now," he said, bringing his arms up, "I wish no harm to you, I just want to explain what happened to you. You just have to follow me. You can trust me, I'm Ichigo friend." 'Bit of a stretch saying that but it won't hurt.' Urahara thought.

"You know Ichigo?" Chad questioned, Urahara nodded.

"Yes, you can trust me."

Chad weighed his options, finally deciding to follow the man, "Okay, I'll follow you." he finally decided.

* * *

 _ **A couple hours later... with Ichigo...**_

"999... 1000." Ichigo said to himself as he cut down yet another hollow, 'Ok, this is getting boring.' he thought, killing weak hollows for 4 hours straight got repetitive after a while, 'I wish a strong one could come around, spice things up a bit...' he kept trailing on, looking left and right for another hollow, seeing none.

He kept looking for a bit, he couldn't even sense any, 'Where did they go?'

He felt a disturbance in the sky and looked up, only to see a giant hole in it, 'Uuuhhhh, what?' last he knew, that didn't happen, not even in the world of shinigami. He kept his look on the hole for a couple seconds. The hollows seemed attracted to it, crawling into it, 'Is that a portal to Hueco Mundo?' he looked at the position of the sun, it was a solid 20 minutes away from setting, 'Odd, maybe the bait ended earlier than Ishida thought it would...' A massive hollow, easily the size of a sky-scraper, suddenly walked out of the portal, 'Or not.' he added, the first hollow walked fully out of the portal, another 2 following eventually, 'Odd, they're huge, but they don't feel that powerful, I guess those are Gillian class hollows. Not that impressive.' he thought, flash stepping towards them.

He arrived a couple seconds later, where he saw Ishida, trying fruitlessly to destroy the Gillian, his hands were a mess of red, "Huh, looks like you're not all that powerful, your hands are destroyed, and you can barely put a scratch on a Gillian." Ichigo said as he landed next to the quincy, his hands in his pockets.

Ishida grit his teeth, as much as he hated to admit it, the shinigami was right. He stopped firing, his bow disappeared as he put his hands on his knees, staining them with blood, "You might be right shinigami. But I don't see a scratch on you, have you seriously done nothing this entire time? And besides, I doubt you could do much more damage than I did." Ishida said.

"Ahh, young quincy, that's where you're mistaken, I don't have a scratch on me simply because those hollows couldn't touch me," Ishida's eyes widened, "And about not being able to kill those Gillians..." Ichigo trailed off, disappearing in a blur that Ishida's eyes couldn't track.

Ichigo landed back next to Ishida, "You're mistaken as well." he said as three body sized cuts appeared on the Gillians, slicing them in half. Ishida stared at the shower of spirit particles with a shocked expression, while Ichigo sheathed his sword, "You have a lot to learn, to improve, your immaturity for one. Do you really think all shinigami are the same? That's just about as stupid as thinking all people you meet are the same. Listen, I'm sorry about your grand-father, but you have to get over that. Did he have a dream, an ambition?" Ichigo questioned.

"He wanted all shinigami and quincy to live peacefully." Ishida whispered.

"Then try to do what he couldn't. I'm sure you're smart enough to realise that the shinigami were justified in killing the quincies. Hell, you have a quincy right in front of you that can understand that." Ishida's eyes, that had adopted a sad expression as Ichigo kept talking, widened.

"What do you mean?" he asked as he brought his look up, only to see Ichigo holding a black bow in his hands, his necklace taken out of his shirt for Ishida to see.

"I don't use a bow, but I figured it would make for better proof. Yes, I'm a quincy. It's a really complicated story, ask your father about Masaki Kurosaki if you wanna learn about it, although I can't promise he'll tell you about it." Ichigo explained.

"But... how can you be a quincy, you're a shinigami!" Ishida yelled, standing up straight.

"I told you, it's complicated, I'm a shinigami, a quincy, and a human." 'And a hollow.' but Ichigo didn't think that needed to be said, "If nothing else can change your opinion, can't seeing a mix of both shinigami and quincy do that?" Ichigo asked, honestly, he didn't really care about making the kid see the light, or whatever, but it didn't hurt to try.

Ishida looked back down, "I guess you're right. Although I will still kill the abomination of a shinigami that left my grand-father to die." Ichigo sighed.

"I can't say you're wrong for trying to do that, although you shouldn't let it swallow you, trust me, I almost did." Ichigo said, "Well, all I can ask of you is to try." Ichigo shrugged, turning back around, his hands in his pockets, "Although this whole talk might be for naught if I find out somebody died because of this." he said as he turned his head around to face Ishida, his stare deadly, "If somebody did, nobody will be able to help you." he finished coldly, blurring away. Ishida gulped, after seeing the fast work Ichigo had made of the Gillians, he didn't doubt it.

The quincy stood there for a couple seconds, contemplating what had just happened, before turning around, in the direction of the hospital, intent on asking his father about Ichigo Kurosaki.

* * *

 ** _With Urahara and Rukia, a couple minutes before..._**

Rukia ran as fast as she could in the direction of where she could feel Ichigo, Ishida and the three Gillians, before she was stopped by a hand grabbing her arm, bringing her into a bush. Intent on killing whoever had just grabbed her, she turned to face them, only to see Urahara standing there, a finger on his lips.

"Shhh, Rukia-san, stay silent. I want to see how Ichigo-kun handles this." Urahara said excitedly.

"What the hell are you talking about!? You want to let Ichigo face off against 3 Gillian class hollows on his own? He'll get himself killed!" she yelled, while at the same time keeping her voice down.

Urahara's expression turned a bit more serious, "Indeed, that is what you would believe, listen, I am no place to tell you everything about this situation, you can ask Ichigo about it. But I can guarantee you Ichigo will be able to kill those Gillians, easily." Urahara said, his tone so deadly serious, Rukia had a hard time believing he could be lying.

She decided on staying hidden, if only to see if what Urahara was saying was true, 'There's no way Ichigo could kill those Gillians, he's barely a shinigami! And he only got his powers a couple weeks ago! It'd be impossible for him to fight against a tenth seat by now!' but her mind nagged at her, reminding her of his fight with Inoue's brother turned hollow, and of the general feeling of power he gave off at times, she couldn't help but doubt her thoughts, maybe Ichigo was more than he appeared to be. If he was, this fight would solidify the evidence.

She watched attentively as Ichigo landed next to Ishida, at speeds he shouldn't be able to achieve. She looked on as Ichigo probably taunted the quincy. And as fast as he appeared, he disappeared.

Rukia blinked, and the next thing she saw was Ichigo back next to Ishida, and the Gillians cut in half, dead, 'What?!' she thought incredulously. She looked towards Urahara, who was watching the scene with the expression of an excited child, muttering, 'so cool, if only I could kill 3 Gillians like that...'. She stared at him with what was possible the most deadpan expression she had ever made. He looked at her, shrugging sheepishly, "What? You can't say that wasn't cool." he whispered. Rukia shook her head.

"You owe me an explanation." she said sternly.

"As I said, I'm in no position to tell you about Ichigo, he will tell you if he wants to." Urahara said. Rukia accepted it, surely Ichigo would tell her.

* * *

 _ **2 hours later, back at Ichigo's house...**_

"Ichigo, can I ask you a question?" Rukia asked.

Ichigo looked towards her, his noodles still hanging from his mouth. He slurped them up, wiping his mouth, "Yes?"

Rukia steeled herself, "How did you kill those 3 Gillians like that?" she questioned. Ichigo's eyebrow rose.

"You saw that?" she nodded, "Did you hear what I was talking to Ishida about after?" she shook her head negative. Ichigo sighed in relief internally.

"I guess the explanation that I got lucky wouldn't work?" he asked sheepishly, the look he got answered the question, "Ok, ok, I get it. Listen, I'm sorry, but I can't tell you the entire story, although I can tell you that I'm no normal human, hell, I'm not even a normal shinigami." he explained.

"Can you not give me more detail?" she pleaded.

Ichigo sighed, "I guess I can, the most I can tell you is that I'm the son of a shinigami, a powerful one at that." Rukia's eyes widened.

"But... your mother was a human." she said, Ichigo nodded.

"Yes, the whole situation was a shit-show. I hope I can explain it to you someday, but right now I can't. I'm sorry." Ichigo told her, he truly didn't like keeping something like that away from her.

"No, it's fine. I understand." she said, although she did want to know more, she could respect Ichigo's wishes.

Ichigo got up, bringing his dishes to the sink, "I'm gonna go to bed, today tired me out." he said, Rukia nodded.

"Okay, good night."

Ichigo went into his room, closing the door, 'Some more shinigami arrived in Karakura a couple minutes ago, and by the looks of it, they're powerful.' Ichigo thought as he focused a bit harder, 'Three of them, they feel extremely powerful, although it feels like they have a sort of seal restricting them.'

Ichigo popped his mod soul, "Act asleep, I don't know what's gonna happen tonight, if I'm not back by tomorrow, go to Urahara's." the mod soul nodded, taking it's position in bed.

Ichigo opened the window, jumping out of it in the direction of the three shinigami.

* * *

 ** _With the shinigami..._**

"It looks like our target is approaching us." a tall man, with long black hair, wearing a headpiece, a scarf and a long white haori said dully.

Another man, although he looked more like a boy, with spiky silver hair and another white haori, nodded his head, agreeing.

"I hope we will be able to apprehend him and Rukia without too much violence, none, if possible." another man, with short, scraggy brown hair, glasses and yet another white haori said.

"I wonder what the son of Shiba-taichou will be like." The boy said, the black haired man narrowed his eyes towards him.

"Hitsugaya-Taichou, I would appreciate it if you wouldn't call him a captain anymore, his punishment was clear, you are the captain of the tenth division until further notice now. Besides, if he really is his son, I wouldn't expect much from him." the man said, his tone condescending.

The boy, now identified as Hitsugaya, grit his teeth, "His punishment wasn't warranted, he made a mistake, we all make them. Besides, he will be back as a captain soon enough. I also suggest you respect him a bit more, he is your elder and could beat you with one arm if he really had to, Kuchiki-taichou."

Kuchiki narrowed his eyes a bit more, although there was still no expression his face, "It being a mistake is irrelevant, he disobeyed the law, and he got served his justice. I have no respect for those who broke the law." he said.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, Kuchiki-taichou, but if we're working with that logic, have you lost all respect for your sister?" the brown haired man said, resisting the temptation to put up a sly smirk as the man's face faltered a bit.

"I would have, but the situation changed. Rukia is no longer a criminal, she only helped a latent shinigami in unlocking their powers. She has done nothing wrong, Aizen-taichou." Kuchiki said.

"If you say so, Kuchiki-taicho." he said.

"He's coming." Hitsugaya interrupted.

A figure landed on the ground, right in front of the three. He was wearing the traditional shinigami garb, with his sword sheathed, although the hilt was visible, and it was a surprising pure white, his hair was also a surprising bright orange.

He analysed the three wordlessly, they were captains, he didn't know why Soul Society had sent 3 captains to deal with him. But the point was he couldn't fight them all if they got rid of their power seal, three captains was too much for him at his level. So he either had to hope for a stroke of good luck, like Urahara saving him, or that they weren't here to harm him.

'So that's him... Ichigo Kurosaki... yes, I can feel it, your power is there, already very high, he could surely beat Hitsugaya or Kuchiki in a one on one. You almost outsmarted me, child. But I always have a trump card.' the brown-haired man thought, smiling smugly internally.

"Three captains just for me? What did I do to deserve such treatment?" Ichigo asked, crossing his arms, his face dead serious.

'There's no way that's the son of Shiba-taicho...' Hitsugaya thought with an internal deadpan face. He doubted his former captain could make such a serious face, much less hold it.

The brown-haired man stepped forward, "Yes, we will explain the situation to you, but first, let us introduce ourselves."

Kuchiki spoke first, "I am Byakuya Kuchiki, taicho of the sixth divison of the Gotei Thirteen and 28th head of the Kuchiki family." he said cooly.

'Kuchiki? I wonder how he's related to Rukia.' Ichigo thought.

"I'm Hitsugaya Toshiro, newly instated taicho of the tenth division." the boy said.

'Tenth division? Isshin got replaced, and the captains are coming to see me now... oh no, I don't like where this is going...' he thought.

The last person opened their mouth, and that moment the only thought that went through Ichigo's head was, 'I swear to fucking god if that's Aizen...'

"And I'm Aizen Sosuke," **'Jinxed it.'** "Taicho of the fifth division. Now that we've introduced ourselves, would you mind giving us your name?" Aizen asked, a clearly fake kind expression on his face.

"My name's Kurosaki Ichigo... that's all." he said, "Now would you mind telling me why you're here?" he asked.

'He's surprisingly serious for a Shiba.' Kuchiki thought, begrudgingly feeling a bit of respect towards how the child was handling the situation.

"It has come to our attention." Kuchiki started, "That you are the son of one of our now former captains, we are simply here to make sure no shinigami is left without supervision, especially not one that is the son of such a powerful captain." he said.

Ichigo rose his eyebrows, "Really? That seems odd to me, wouldn't a child such as me be illegal in the Soul Society? The rogue son of a shinigami and a human?" he asked.

"I don't know who taught you about Soul Society, but we are not that strict, it is not your fault for being born to a shinigami and a human, we have punished the shinigami, you however, are in full right to receive everything a shinigami would receive." Kuchiki said.

"I will admit to thinking you would simply kill off somebody such as me, I repent my misjudgment." he said somewhat sarcastically, although his mind was running a thousand miles an hour, 'This has to be Aizen's doing, there's no other way they would have discovered I was Isshin's son, and that they would be handling the situation like that if they had. The question is, why is Aizen doing this? Did he somehow discover I had the hogyoku in me?' that was the only logical conclusion Ichigo could come to, but the question now was how he discovered that, and no matter how much he racked his brain, he couldn't find the answer, 'Did he simply outsmart me?' he thought, "Well, that's all well and good I guess. But by 'receiving everything a shinigami would receive', what might you mean?" he asked.

"You will be entered into the shinigami academy as soon as you can, where you will then graduate after six years and become a full-fledged shinigami, your rank depending on your skill." Aizen said.

'So he does know I have the hogyoku, there's no other reason as to why he would go through such trouble to isolate me.' Ichigo huffed, "So I'm going to school, huh. Although I do have one last question."

"Ask whatever you want." Aizen said.

"What would you do if I was to say... refuse?" Ichigo questioned, he knew there was no hope in that question, there's no way Aizen would let him escape when he had him in such a good situation, it was akin to letting the king get away when he was in checkmate, that made no sense.

The three captains narrowed their eyes, "Are you going to refuse?" Aizen said, his voice gaining a small edge.

That answered his question, there was no escaping this without a fight, and there was no way he could beat three captains, one of them being Aizen, "Nope, just asking." he said, rubbing the back of his head, "I'm guessing you also want to get the shinigami who uncovered all this back right?"

"Yes, she is to come back to Soul Society, if you would escort us to where she is." Kuchiki asked.

"Alright then, follow me." he said as he jumped away.

* * *

 _ **In front of Ichigo's house...**_

"I suggest you wait here while I go get Rukia." Ichigo said. They nodded.

Ichigo walked in the house, where Rukia was watching TV in the living room. She looked at him in surprise, "Ichigo? I thought you went to sleep."

"Uhh, about that, let me just go in my room two seconds and I'll tell you." He said as he made a dash towards his room, reappearing a couple seconds later, "Back to what we were talking about, I felt 3 shinigami in town and went to look for them. Turns out they found out I'm the son of a shinigami and are here to take you back, along with taking me as well." she stood up, suddenly panicked.

"What? What do they want you for?" she asked.

"Since I'm the son of a captain they want me to go to the academy and become a shinigami. And they just want you back." he explained, which didn't seem to help.

'He's the son of a captain?' she thought incredulously, "So they're just gonna take you to the Soul Society, even though you're still a human?"

"Yeah, they seemed very stubborn about me coming with them." he said, "Anyways, the point is you're going back to Soul Society and I'm coming with you. Have your powers fully came back yet?" he asked.

"Yeah, they've been back for a couple days now." she answered, Ichigo nodded.

"You ready?" he asked as he made for the door, she followed.

"Yes, just one thing though, who are the people who came to get- Nii-sama!" she said in surprise as Ichigo opened the door, revealing the three captains, "Aizen-Taicho! Hitsugaya... Taicho?" she hesitated, last she knew he wasn't a captain.

"Rukia." Kuchiki said, cold as ever.

"Ahh, Rukia-chan, I'm happy to see you okay. I'm sure you have a lot of questions, the first of them being why Hitsugaya is now a taicho." Aizen started, before Ichigo interrupted him.

"My father got demoted from his rank as captain as punishment for having me. And Hitusgaya is replacing him." he said, happy to see Aizen face twitch in irritation, small victories.

"Oh, okay." she said. She couldn't help but notice something as Ichigo and Aizen stood in front of her. Ichigo still felt like he usually did, radiated with the energy that she recognized him for, while Aizen seemed faker, when next to somebody as authentic, she couldn't dwell on that though, as Byakuya opened a senkaimon.

"You will be able to ask your questions later, for now we must head back to Soul Society." Byakuya said as he let Ichigo go first, seemingly out of respect and politeness but in reality probably more out of suspicion.

'Alright so let me get this straight guys. Not only did I get outplayed by Aizen, he also knows I have the hogyoku in me and I'm now going to be stuck in the shinigami academy with virtually nobody to help me out? Did I get all that?' he asked his spirits.

 _"Well, you won't have nobody to help you out, but yes. You did resume the situation pretty well."_ Mikasa said.

 _"It would seem we're in a pretty dire situation."_ Ossan said.

 **"Ooh,"** Shiro said as he chuckled, **"You're sooooo fucked."**

'Oh. I'm so fucked.'

* * *

 **Taa daa! Was I right in saying that shit went down this chapter? I think the fuck I was, if that's not called shit going I don't know what is.**

 **Okay, let me stop sucking my own dick for a second.**

 **I don't have much to say for this chapter, feel free to ask questions, although some of them won't be answered because spoilers.**

 **Thanks reading.**


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: I'm seriously lacking any imagination for a chapter name.

 **Update.**

 **LEGO!**

"Talking"

'Thinking'

 **"Demon/Hollow talking"**

 **'Demon/Hollow thinking'**

 _"Spirit Talking"_

 _'Spirit thinking'_

 **Disclaimer: Don't own Bleach.**

* * *

 **Chapter 10: I'm seriously lacking any imagination for a chapter name.**

The group of 5 walked along the pathway to Soul Society silently. Ichigo mainly paying attention to how ugly it was, "Seriously, you think they could renovate it or something..." he said off-handedly, hands in his pockets, Byakuya looked at him in the corner of his eye, walking in front of him.

"Soul Society has better things to do, and you have better things to think about. You should be more worried about this situation." he said.

"What would I have to worry about? You said I would be treated like a normal shinigami, so what would the problem be?" he asked.

"I think what Kuchiki-Taichou is trying to say is that you aren't handling this like we thought you would, we were expecting you to be more panicked at this whole situation." Aizen said, his tone still friendly, although the way he was looking straight at Ichigo showed him truly.

"Eh, it's not like I had much over there anyways. Besides, I was expecting something like this to happen when I learned who I was the son of. I'm just surprised you guys found out, changed the plan a bit." he admitted, Byakuya looked at him.

"What do you mean 'Changed the plan'? What were you planning?" he asked, his tone suspicious, Ichigo shrugged.

"I had just been wondering how I would handle the situation when talking to people as powerful as you, although that's irrelevant now." he said, complementing them on purpose, "I knew I would have to watch myself."

"You didn't seem to care all that much when faced with the real deal." Hitsugaya pointed out, Ichigo shrugged.

"I couldn't feel much evil intent coming from you guys, you seemed about as friendly as I could have imagined you." he explained.

They stayed silent after that. Reaching the end of the tunnel a couple minutes later, "When we enter the Soul Society, you will follow us to the Squad One barracks, where we will host a meeting with all the captains, including your father, who was allowed to join because of the circumstances, and you will explain your retailing of events." Byakuya said.

"Sounds good." he said nonchalantly.

"Rukia, you will go back to the mansion. Go rest, these events must have been taxing on you." he said, a small amount of worry seeping into his voice.

Rukia's eyes widened, "Yes, Nii-sama!"

Ichigo looked at Rukia quickly, analysing her reaction to what he had told her. Mainly being disappointed, it was obvious she idolised her brother for some reason, why? He didn't know, and he didn't care, idolisation wasn't a good thing, no matter towards who it was, especially not somebody like him.

They walked put the portal, being greeted by carefully lined up guards, all with their faces covered, 'Take that off, you look stupid.' he thought, feeling a small bit of anger towards Soul Society for forcing their people to wear something like this, and also a small bit of anger towards the people that had agreed to drop all respect for themselves to wear it.

"Can you use shunpo?" Aizen asked.

"Yes, although I probably can't keep up with you guys." he lied, it wouldn't do for him to be as fast, if not faster, than captains.

"Alright, then you can follow us, we'll slow down for you." Aizen said as the three captains took off, leaving Rukia and Ichigo behind.

Ichigo looked back at her, giving her a peace sign and a "Cya." before vanishing.

Rukia soon followed suit, going towards the mansion to digest all that had just happened.

Ichigo soon caught up to the captains, who had indeed slowed down for him. Byakuya looked at Ichigo's technique carefully, surprisingly, he found no flaws, small mistakes that made him slower, 'He shouldn't have such a mastery over shunpo yet. It's obvious that he could go faster. He's trying to appear weaker than he is,' he huffed internally, 'Smarter than what I would expect from the child of Isshin Shiba.'

They stopped in front of a huge door, with the emblem for the first division painted on it, Ichigo looked at it with bored eyes, 'They really like sucking themselves off don't they.' he thought.

Byakuya pushed the doors open slowly. They lead into a huge room, with 11 people in it, 9 of them lined up in two lines of 4 and 5, with one looking over them all. The last person was on the sides, looking expectantly at the door.

'The 9 last captains, the Captain-Commander, and my dad.' he thought, glancing at them all, trying to figure them out a bit, 'The Captain-Commander feels as powerful as Urahara made him out to be, I don't wanna mess with him, yet. All the other captains, aside from the creepy looking chick, the buff one, and the overly relaxed one, and my dad, are fodder.' he concluded after a small peek into their reiatsu, 'They seriously demoted one of their most powerful captains over something like this. By the looks of it, they really need him, if the only replacement they could find for him was Hitsugaya. Idiots.' Ichigo thought. He looked towards Isshin, who was staring at him with a shocked face, "Hey." Ichigo said nonchalantly, "It's Ichigo by the way, Ichigo Kurosaki." he told him, "I would appreciate it if you could hold this off until we're done with this." he finished, his tone an even one of boredom the entire time.

Most of the captains were surprised, some shocked, at the careless tone in the boy's voice when talking to his father for the first time. Isshin, for his part, seemed to snap out of his thoughts as Ichigo spoke, regaining a composed face, "If that's how you want to do things, that's fine. Although I want you to tell me what happened to Masaki." he said, his tone unwavering.

"Oh, mom? She died 6 years ago, killed by Grand Fisher." Ichigo told him.

The captains were once again caught by surprise, and some shock, at how he talked about his dead mother like he was talking about the weather. Isshin though, was shocked once again.

"What?" he whispered, "That's impossible! She-" Ichigo raised his hand.

"Calm down Isshin, I'll explain it to you later." he said, he didn't want Isshin yelling out that his mother was a quincy. The man nodded, calming himself down.

Ichigo turned back towards the captains, "Captain Commander Yamamoto something something, and the others I don't know. Mind enlightening me?" he said. A small black haired captain, who Ichigo had identified as fodder, grit her teeth.

"Don't address the Soutaicho like that boy! You will address him with respect." she yelled out.

"Jesus christ, calm down." Ichigo said as he held his ears, "It's not my fault that I don't know his name."

Said Soutaicho, had obviously heard enough, as he slammed his cane down, "Enough! I will tolerate your disrespect for now child. You are simply here to tell us your version of events after you met the shinigami Kuchiki Rukia, after that you will be taken to your dorm in the Shino'o Academy." he said, his voice commanding, although to Ichigo it was annoying, as he grit his teeth.

'Fucking hell, do you seriously have to slam your cane that loud! And for fuck's sake stop yelling, I can hear you!' he thought, 'Is the only way for you to get respect around here to make loud noises?' he ranted angrily, although externally he was straightening himself out, standing straight in front of the captain, "Of course, although I would still appreciate it if I could get your names." he pushed a bit.

"Fine, child." the Captain Commander said, his voice frustrated, "I am Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto," 'That's a long ass name.', "And I am the Captain Commander of the Gotei Thirteen."

"Sui-Feng, Captain of the Second Division of the Gotei Thirteen and Commander of the Omnitsukido."

"Wait a second here." Ichigo interrupted, "I asked for your names, not a short biography, just your name and Division'll be enough. 20 words or less here, time ain't free." he said, tapping his wrist as if a watch was there.

A lot of the captains grit their teeth at the teen's disrespect, although they held their comments for themselves.

Aside from one captain, who didn't bother holding in his laughter, "I like you, kid!" the captain yelled out. Ichigo rose an eyebrow.

"Uhhh, thanks?" he said hesitantly.

"Don't worry about Kenpachi-Taicho here, he gets excited." a captain, with grey hair, a sly smirk and slit eyes, said, "I'm Gin Ichimaru, Captain of the third division."

"Unohana Retsu, Captain of the fourth Division." the creepy lady said.

"Aizen Sosuke, Captain of the fifth Division. Although we have already met." he said with a kind smile.

"Kuchiki Byakuya, Captain of the sixth Division."

"Sajin Komamura, Captain of the seventh Division." A huge man said, a bucket covering his head.

"Shunsui Kyoraku, Captain of the eighth Division." One of the captains who Ichigo hadn't identified as fodder, said.

"Kaname Tosen, Captain of the ninth Division." a black man with a purple visor covering his eyes said.

"Hitsugaya Toshiro, Captain of the tenth Division."

"Kenpachi Zaraki, Captain of the eleventh Division." the man who seemingly 'liked' Ichigo said.

"Mayuri Kurotsuchi, Captain of the twelfth Division." A Egyptian Pharaoh said.

"Jushiro Ukitake, Captain of the thirteenth Division." a friendly looking man with white hair said.

"Now that the introductions are over, you will tell us your recollection of events since you met Rukia Kuchiki." the Soutaicho said.

And so Ichigo told them the story of how he met Rukia, excluding almost everything that had actually happened, and basically summing it up to how he had saved her from the hollow, let her stay at his apartment, how she had taught him about hollows and how to fight them.

"I see." the Soutaicho said, "It seems your side of things isn't much different then what we thought it was. Which is good for you. Very well. I will now ask a captain to escort Kurosaki to the Shino'o Academy. Ukitake-Taicho, if you would." he asked, Ukitake nodded, "Very well, you are now dismissed. Isshin, you may talk to Ichigo after he has finished his business at the Academy." All the captains, aside from Ukitake took their leave.

Ukitake walked up to Ichigo, bowing slightly, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Kurosaki-san. I would like to first thank you for what you did for Rukia-chan. I fear to think about what might have happened had she been left to her own devices after the loss of her powers. So for that, I thank you." he said politely. Ichigo waved his hand dismissively.

"It's nothing, I was the one who had gotten her in the situation in the first place. It was the least I owed her." he said.

"Nevertheless, I thank you." he insisted.

"I guess you're welcome. Is she part of your division? She never did mention that." he asked. Ukitake nodded.

"Yes, she's been in my division for a long time now, although she is still unseated, even though she could easily be at least tenth seat. Don't tell her, but it's because of her brother, Kuchiki-Taicho, he doesn't want her in a position that could put her in even more danger, so he asked me to keep her unseated." he told him.

Ichigo raised an eyebrow, by now the two were on their way to the Academy, "And you accepted? Why?" he asked, "It seems to me that would be a bad thing towards her morale and confidence."

"Indeed, it is." he said sadly, "I can see that she wants to ask me about her position, but she doesn't. I would promote her, but I don't feel I have the right to go against her brother's wishes, it's family business after all."

"I can't say I agree with that. But then again, things like these are different in Soul Society than in the real world. Why don't you give her a chance to prove herself to her brother? That might get rid of his worries towards letting her be in a higher position." he suggested.

"I've thought of that, I just need to find a way to make it seem like it happened naturally, and be sure it doesn't endanger anybody else." he explained.

"I understand. If you need help with it, you can ask." he told him, Ukitake turned his head towards Ichigo, his face questioning, "She's my friend after all. I can tell you after all the fights I've seen her take part in that she is better than an unseated officer, it's the least she deserves after all. Although I have a feeling a test may be coming for us all soon." he said.

'His face isn't all that's similar to him... I'll need to talk to Rukia-chan, I don't know how she dealt with something like this.' Ukitake thought, "Thank you." he said gratefully, "I feel it too, with all that's been happening I feel like Soul Society is going to be facing a challenge harder than we've had to face in a while."

'You don't even know the half of it...' Ichigo thought.

They made their way to the Academy in silence after that, "I'll warn you now before I might forget to tell you, Ichigo." Ukitake broke the silence. Ichigo raised an eyebrow.

"What is there?" he asked.

"Ever since Isshin was discovered of having a child with a human, the honor of the Shiba clan has been a bit tarnished, it is said they might lose their rank of 'Great Noble Family.' because of this. And since you are a member of the Shiba clan, even worst, the child that caused all this, some students might try and use that against you. I'm sure you can see what I mean." Ukitake said.

Ichigo shrugged, "I don't care honestly, it won't be any worst than when kids tried to bully me over my orange hair, besides, in this school I can at least prove them I'm worth something." he told him.

Ukitake smiled, it was almost like he was talking to Kaien, "That's good to hear, and with that mentality, you'll get far. Hopefully you'll be able to restore the Shiba Clan's honor, I used to have a good friend that was it's head, he unfortunately died a couple decades ago. I would hate to see his family's reputation torn over something like this. You remind me a lot of him you know." he said.

"Really? Who was he?" Ichigo asked, intrigued.

"His name was Kaien Shiba, he was my lieutenant, he was also very close to Rukia, although that's a story for her to tell. And yes, you remind me of him. Not only because you could be twins, but also because you exude the same aura, you feel the same." Ukitake told him.

"I won't say that doesn't sound a bit creepy." Ichigo said, to which Ukitake chuckled, "Thanks though."

"You're welcome, now follow me, we'll get you signed up." Ukitake told him.

They walked through the halls of the academy for a couple minutes. Ichigo observing where he would be going to school, and living, for a bit of time.

The school was very prestigious, Soul Society obviously didn't hold back when designing it. He also spotted a lot of the students looking at Ukitake in awe, he guessed captains didn't often come around the academy. Especially not captains as universally liked as Ukitake, it was easy to tell that he was a more liked captain among them all, he was pretty sure that if Kenpachi walked around these halls, students would be running in fear. Some students also questioned what Ichigo was doing walking next to the captain, they of course didn't get any answers.

They arrived at what looked like a check-in desk, "Hello." Ukitake said to the woman at the desk, who was looking down at her papers.

She looked up, her eyes widening when she saw who had addressed her, "O-oh! Sorry Ukitake-Taicho! What can I help you with?" she sputtered, blushing.

Ukitake smiled kindly, "You're fine. It's nice to see people aren't slacking off." she blushed a deeper shade of red, "I'm here to sign in a new student. I know it's the middle of the school year, but I would like an exception to be made, as this is a special case."

"Of course." she said, "Is that him?" she asked, looking at Ichigo, Ukitake nodded, "What's his name?"

"Which one would like to go by, Ichigo?" Ukitake asked.

"Can I go by both?" Ichigo asked.

"Of course. I understand you wouldn't want to leave your mother's name." The captain answered.

Ichigo nodded, "Kurosaki-Shiba Ichigo."

The woman's eyes widened a bit, "Is that him?" she whispered at Ukitake. Ichigo rolled his eyes.

"You do know I can hear you right?" Ichigo asked rhetorically, the woman's face reddened a bit in embarrassment, "Yes, I'm the long lost son of Isshin Shiba."

"I see." she said, writing his name down. She asked a couple more administrative questions to fill out the form, "That's all, you know just need to take the Academy test to see which class you'll be in." she said.

"When is it?" he asked.

"It's in half an hour, at the first training ground." she answered.

"Ok, is that all?" Ichigo questioned, to which she nodded, "Alright, thanks." he said.

"Thank you very much." Ukitake told the woman as both of them walked off.

"So what's this test all about?" Ichigo asked.

"It's a simple test to determine your classes. What year, if you'll be in the normal or advanced class. But don't worry, with your lineage you'll most likely be in the advanced class. Probably as a second or third year, given your experience." Ukitake explained.

"Sounds good."

"Now, we have half an hour until the test, would you like me to give you a tour?" Ukitake asked.

"Sure."

And so they toured around the school, ending up where the test was supposed to be taking place, "Here we are, now if you'd excuse me, I would love to watch your test, but I have to get back to my division." Ukitake said.

"No problem, thanks for everything." Ichigo replied as Ukitake shunpoed away. Ichigo walked towards the door's to the training ground, opening it.

"Ah, good, you're on time." he heard a voice say, he turned towards it, being greeted by 4 people sitting at a table, "I'm Gengoro Onabara, the main teacher for class 1# of the academy, the accelerated class, which you might have the honor of joining. But that's not what's important. Are you ready?" Ichigo nodded.

The test went on for 10 minutes. And by the end the teachers were... surprised, to say the least.

"Uuuhhhhhhh... Are you sure you belong in the Academy?" Onabara asked, flabbergasted. Ichigo rubbed his neck sheepishly.

He had more or less destroyed the test, he had tried to hold back as much as he could, but even then he had made the reiatsu machine overload. He had also completely outclassed the year 6 students who were meant to test him.

"Yeah, Rukia did tell me I was impressive." he said.

Onabara rubbed his forehead, "Tell me about it, although even with all this you still have some parts that are lacking, for example, your history, knowledge of the functioning of Soul Society and Kido, aren't too crazy, aside from that, your reiatsu level, zanjutsu and Hoho are though the roof. Your control over reiatsu is incredibly high as well, so you'll definitely be good at Kido. Well, there's not much debating, you're in the sixth year advanced class. Normally we wouldn't put you that high because of lack of experience, but you basically acted as a Shinigami for two weeks, which also explains why you're at such a high level." Onabara sighed, "Talk about a prodigy, even Gin and Hitsugaya don't hold a candle to you. Congratulations! You're been accepted into the Shino'o Academy! You can go pick up your dorm room key, uniform and schedule at the check-in." Onabara said.

"Yep, thanks!" Ichigo said as he walked out, 'That test was ridiculously easy, their standard for a shinigami must be really low...' he thought as he made his way towards the check-in, remembering where it was, "Oh hey, you again." Ichigo said as he walked up to the same woman who had first checked him in.

She looked up in surprise, "Oh, did you pass your test?" she asked.

"Yep," he said as he dropped the papers he had been given on the desk, she read through them, her eyebrows raising more and more as she continued.

"Sixth year advanced class? Impressive." she said, "Well, here's all you need. Good luck." she said as she handed him his uniform, keys and schedule, "Your room number is on the key, you can find a map of the dorms over there." she pointed at a sign, "Oh and also, since you joined in during the middle of the year, you won't have to share a dorm." Ichigo internally sighed in relief at that.

"Okay, thanks." Ichigo said as he walked off.

Minutes later he was in front of his room, dorm 412.

'Welp.' he thought, 'Here goes nothing.'

* * *

A young man ran through the doors that led to the Soul King's resting room. He was sweating, his scraggy brown hair sticking to his forehead and his square glasses sliding off his nose, he took a pause to catch his breath, his hands on his knees.

The Soul King looked towards the doors, seeing the young man, "What do you want?" he asked.

"Father!" the boy yelled out, "Is it true?" he asked, still breathing heavily.

"Is what true?" he questioned, although he already knew.

"That you sent the Hogyoku down to search for the next Soul King?" he answered.

"Yes, it is true, the Hogyoku has been sent down." the King confirmed.

"But why? You said I would be the next heir." he asked.

The old King sighed at his child's immaturity, "I said you would be the next King if I couldn't find a proper heir. I told you, the next Soul King isn't chosen by lineage, but by who the Hogyoku deems worthy, and if it can't find anybody, then the child of the Soul King is chosen. And there is still time, so unless the Hogyoku can't find anybody, you won't be the next Soul King." he explained.

"But I'm just as worthy as anybody the Hogyoku could find! You know that!" the child yelled.

The King shook his head, "My child, there is still a lot you do not know, there will always be somebody more worthy, there is somebody more worthy than you, than me. I can't simply choose you to be the next Soul King because you think you are worthy."

"How can I prove it to you then? That I'm more worthy than anybody the Hogyoky could find." he asked.

The Soul King sighed, "I'm afraid you cannot, if the Hogyoku does find somebody, then it will be indisputable, and I can feel it, there will be somebody soon, somebody that is even more worthy than I am, somebody who we will never be able to rival. I'm sorry, but you will never be able to be Soul King." he said firmly.

The child, who had by then, caught his breath, looked up into the eyes of his father, eyes tinged with betrayal, tears welling up in them. Then turned around, running off.

The King looked at his son as he ran off, feeling older than he had in a while, 'I'm sorry, Aizen.' he thought sadly.

* * *

Aizen woke up with a gasp, sitting up. The sweat making his hair stick to his forehead.

'I haven't had that dream in a while.' he thought, 'Is it because of you, Ichigo? Did meeting the person who destroyed my one dream wake up those memories?' he questioned.

He smirked, a condescending smirk, the one he never showed anybody, 'No matter, that is irrelevant now, that dream is now but a distant fantasy, I have moved on to bigger things. And for that, both my father and you will have to die.'

* * *

 **Dun dun duuuunnn!**

 **I seriously have nothing to say.**

 **Feel free to ask questions.**

 **Thanks for reading.**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: What the fuck is going on?

 **I'm writing this shortly after posting the last chapter so I still don't have much to say.**

 **Although somebody did comment on the fact that Ichigo called the captains fodder, let me explain that. When he said they were fodder he wasn't calling them weak, it's just that they weren't what he was expecting, when he saw Urahara, who's an ex-captain, he knew he was extremely powerful, so when he was faced with the captains who, let's admit it, aren't all that for being the strongest fighters in Soul Society, he was simply underwhelmed.**

 **Anyways, that's all I have to say so,**

 **LEGO!**

"Talking"

'Thinking'

 **"Demon/Hollow talking"**

 **'Demon/Hollow thinking'**

 _"Spirit Talking"_

 _'Spirit thinking'_

 **Disclaimer: Don't own Bleach.**

* * *

 **Chapter 11: What the fuck is going on?**

Ichigo woke up after a surprisingly good night's sleep, feeling a small weight on his stomach, he looked up and saw the cat he had seen the night when he had met Rukia and gone to Urahara's shop for the first time, 'Heh, I guess Urahara acts fast.' he thought, "May I ask what you're doing on my stomach?" he asked.

The cat seemed perplexed to be expected to talk, although it's expression soon changed to mirth, "You know what I'm doing here if you are expecting me to talk." it said, it's voice masculine.

Ichigo raised an eyebrow, "So Urahara sent a gender-confused talking cat to help me?" he questioned.

The cat seemed outraged, angry and surprised at that, "What? Gender-confused? What are you talking about? And I'll have you know I'm not just some talking cat!" it exclaimed.

Ichigo smirked, "Well, your voice is male but I can tell from your spiritual energy that you're a woman, and a human one at that, with a very... voluptuous, figure. So technically I have a hot girl laying on me right now." he said, laughing when the cat tried to scratch him.

"And here I thought I'd be able to tease you and surprise you with my human form. How can you even tell all that?" the cat asked.

"When I focus on your spiritual energy, I can see the actual outline of your body, and it's not one of a cat." he explained.

The cat raised an eyebrow, "Really? I've never heard of that."

Ichigo shrugged, "I don't know, don't care. Now could you get off me, and explain to me what you're here for. And what your name is." the cat hopped off him.

"My name's Yoruichi Shihoin, and I'm simply here to help train you until Urahara can get your three friends ready to invade Soul Society." Yoruichi explained casually.

Ichigo stopped as he reached for his new uniform, "Get my three friends ready for what?" he asked.

"You don't know? Oh right, you were taken to Soul Society before you learned. Your friends, Orihime, Chad and Tatsuki, awakened powers while you and Ishida were busy doing your stupid competition." she explained.

"Okay, first of all, I didn't want to participate in that, and second of all" he took a deep breath, "why the fuck is Urahara's plan to send three kids who just awakened their powers to Soul Society, what does that even have to do with Aizen?" he asked.

"Aha! Good question, to be honest, I don't know." the cat said sheepishly.

Ichigo made a deadpan face, "Do you actually not know, or has Urahara told you not to tell me?"

"I really don't know, when I tried to question him on why he was doing it, he said it would be 'something Aizen wouldn't expect.'." she explained, "And he's not going to train them for a couple hours and send them off, you should at least count a month or two before he sends them here, so they will be ready, and so will you."

Ichigo facepalmed, "'Something Aizen wouldn't expect.' Yeah, cause it's so stupid he wouldn't even think that was an option. Ughh, what did I do to deserve having to deal with an idiot like that." he muttered.

"You're complaining, I've had to deal with him for a couple centuries now." Yoruichi said.

"I pity you." Ichigo said as he undressed himself to put on his uniform.

"Hey! What are you doing? I'm right here!" she yelled.

"What are you complaining about? You're just a cat. Besides, are you really complaining?" he asked with a smirk as he turned towards her, torso fully exposed.

'He does look nice...' she thought, internally licking her lips, "You do realize that if I am really, 'just a cat' you just tried to flirt with an animal, right?" she pointed out.

"Point." he agreed, putting his uniform on, "Isn't Aizen going to realize you're here though? He seems pretty aware of what's going on at all times." he questioned.

"No, he won't. There are a lot of things I can't be sure of when talking about Aizen, but I can guarantee you he doesn't know I'm here. Besides, I'm going to be spending most of my time in the area where we're going to be training, that nobody knows about." she explained.

"And what are you gonna be doing there?" Ichigo asked.

"I'm gonna train, or at least, get myself back in form, it's been 100 years since I've stretched my beautiful body." she said, "After today's classes you should have free roam to do whatever you want, so come back to your dorm and we'll go train."

Ichigo smirked, at least the person he would be stuck with for 2 months seemed fun, "Gotcha." he said as Yoruichi flashed stepped away, 'Huh, she's fast.' he thought, checking his schedule, 'Oh boy, history class, it's like school never ended.' he thought sadly. Making his way towards his classroom, although he stopped when he saw his father turning around the corner, 'Oh, almost forgot about him.' he thought, "What's up?" he asked casually.

Isshin stopped, taking a second to analyze his son a bit more, since the shock of seeing him for the first time had worn off. If he didn't know any better, he would have thought it was Kaien with orange hair, and a colder demeanour, it was obvious he was more of the cold calculating type, "Listen Ichigo, I don't know how you feel towards me, I know I don't deserve anything as your father, but I would like to at least try, as would the rest of our family. So I'm asking if you would like to have dinner with us tonight, there would be my wife, your cousins and your sisters." Isshin asked.

"Wait, you have a wife? Did you have ever when you met Masaki?" Ichigo asked.

Isshin widened his eyes comically, blubbering and waving his hands around, "Of course not! I hadn't met her yet! Don't even mention the possibility of that, she would beat my ass." Isshin said.

Ichigo chuckled, "Whatever, I don't care. I'm not going either." he said as he started walking again.

Isshin, surprised, took a second before turning around and grabbing his son's shoulder, "What are you talking about? Don't you want to meet your family?" he asked.

Ichigo turned around and sighed, "Listen, I don't really believe in the whole concept of 'family', to me, you guys are like strangers I would meet on the street, I don't care about you guys. Same goes with you, you might be my father by blood, but to me that means nothing, you're just another random person in this world. I hold no ill will, or any good wishes, towards you. So I would rather not meet them." he explaining, before walking off again.

"Wait!" Isshin exclaimed, Ichigo stopped, although he didn't turn around, "I understand where you're coming from, but please, I'm not asking you to do this for my sake, I'm asking for my daughters sake." he pleaded.

Ichigo turned around, arms crossed, "And what could I do for your daughters?" he asked.

"Has anybody told you of Shiba Kaien?" he asked, Ichigo nodded, "He was like a big brother to them, and ever since he died I feel like they've been lost, and I can't do anything about it." he said sadly, looking down, "However you, you feel just like him, you exude that same aura. I'm asking you as a father, powerless to help his daughters during their struggles, I'm asking you to at least try." he almost begged.

Ichigo grit his teeth, he didn't like simply being seen as a replacement for somebody else, "Jesus Christ you're pathetic." Isshin didn't argue that, "Whatever, I'll help you, but I reserve the right to leave whenever I want." he said.

"Thank you." Isshin whispered, although Ichigo heard it.

"Yeah whatever, don't thank me, I don't like it. Anyways, isn't there something else you want to ask me?" he questioned.

"Yes, what happened to your mother?" Isshin asked.

"I'm not going to tell you the full story, simply because you don't need to hear it, but simply put, she lost her quincy powers and wasn't able to fight off the hollow. I got baited into a trap and she saved me." Ichigo explained.

"Why did she lose her powers?" he asked.

Ichigo sighed desperately, "Didn't I tell you? I'm not going to explain the full story, and that's part of it." he said, "And yes, before you even ask, I did get her quincy powers, and can use them."

Isshin's eyes widened, he hadn't thought of that, "Then... you must be extremely powerful. I could tell from your spiritual energy that you were." Isshin's eyes darkened as he kept thinking, "There's a lot you're hiding from us, isn't there?" he said firmly, and instantly, he was behind Ichigo, his hand on his sword's hilt, "If you're not going to see me as your father, I'll do the same towards you. So let me tell you, if you try anything that could even remotely go against Soul Society, I'll kill you." he said, pressing his reiatsu.

Ichigo turned around, his face still uncaring, "Will you stop already? I'm not here to destroy the Soul Society or anything." he told Isshin casually as he starting walking off, "If anything, I'm here to save it." he said before turning the corner, leaving Isshin alone.

'To save it? What could you possibly mean?' Isshin thought, his mind heavy with all the things he had to think over from the conversation with his 'son'.

Ichigo made it to his class swiftly after that, although he was still a bit late. He knocked on the door to the classroom, opening it after he heard an 'enter', "Sorry for being late, I was held up a bit." he said to his teacher, who he recognized as the woman at his test.

"It's fine, ahh, apologies, how would you like to be addressed?" she asked.

"I'd rather you called me Kurosaki." he said.

"I see, things not going smoothly with your new family?" she questioned, her curiosity getting the better of her, Ichigo simply stared at her with a deadpan face, "Sorry," she said sheepishly, "that's none of my business." she turned towards the class, who were looking at the interaction, confused, "Class, please welcome a new student, normally such a thing wouldn't happen, but an exception was made. Although you might have heard of him from rumors, you are to treat him as you would any other classmate." she said sternly, "If you would introduce yourself."

'Oh how I hate these stupid introductions.' Ichigo mused, "Name's Kurosaki-Shiba Ichigo. That's all." he said blankly, going for a free seat.

Whispers started going around when he said his name, obviously the students had heard of the captain who had an affair with a human, Ichigo ignored them, this wasn't what he was here for, besides, he had a feeling, and a hope, that he wouldn't actually stay in the academy for too long.

The class went by slowly, with Ichigo mainly gazing into nothing, since he already had been told most of this by Urahara, he was the first out of the class, not wanting to socialize.

He spent most of the day like that, and very fast, it was time to go back to his dorm to be meet Yoruichi.

He opened the door, where she was on his bed, licking her paws. She looked up, "Ah, you're here." she said as she stood up, "From what Urahara told me you're pretty fast, think you can make it through Seireitei without being spotted?" she said mischievously.

Ichigo smirked, "Please, give me a challenge." the cat laughed.

"Good, I like you. Follow me." she said as she disappeared with flash step, Ichigo following.

"Wow, that was easy, these guys really need to step their security up." Ichigo said as he landed on the ledge of the 'training layer'.

"Agreed."

"So where's this training layer?" Ichigo asked.

The cat walked up to what looked like a latch and pulled it up, revealing a ladder, "Right down here." she said as she jumped, Ichigo following.

They landed at the same time, with Ichigo looking around, "Huh, either you guys are really discreet and managed to clear this out without anybody noticing, or either there's some really cool space magic I don't know about." Ichigo mused.

"Yeah, I still don't know how Urahara made this." she said.

"So, are you finally going to show me what you look like? I doubt a cat can train me." he asked.

She seemed a bit frustrated by that comment, "I could train you while staying in my cat form if I wanted to, the only reason I'm not is because I need to stretch, and also the training we're going to do requires it." she said as she disappeared in a puff of pink smoke.

Ichigo looked at what came out of the smoke with raised eyebrows, and whistled, "10/10, if I do say so myself." he said as he looked at the, for lack of a better word, goddess, that had came out of the smoke, "And naked too, I can appreciate that." he continued.

"Good reaction, I was sort of hoping you would start blubbering and blushing but I figured that wouldn't happen." she told him.

Ichigo smirked, "Come on, do I look like a boy to you?"

She smirked back at him, crossing the short distance between them, her hips swaying, "Of course you don't." she said in a sultry voice, tracing her finger down his chest, all the way to his lower stomach, "It's good too," she whispered in his ear, "I was looking for a man to have _fun_ with." she teased.

'I can't tell whether she's really slutty or just a tease, whatever, not like I care.' Ichigo thought as he placed his hand on her waist, "Oh, and what kind of _fun_ were you thinking about?" he whispered back.

Yoruichi was trying really hard not to laugh, and it was visible on her face, finally, she lost it, and burst out laughing, "I like you, when Urahara told me I'd have to come back to Soul Society to train some 18 year old human with special powers I thought it'd be stuck with some blubbering virgin, but you're pretty fun." she said, recomposing herself.

"Technically I still am a virgin." he clarified with a smirk, "And you're bipolar."

She shrugged, making her breasts bounce a bit, something Ichigo tried hard to ignore, and failed at. Yoruichi spotted that, and smirked, "What you looking at?"

"Your tits, you mind?" he said with a straight face.

"Nah, not really, although I think it's about time we got to training." She said.

"Oh yeah, that is what we are here for, so tell me, what is this training that required you go back to your human body. Sex?" he asked.

"Maybe another day." she said with a sly smirk.

'Maybe another day.' Ichigo thought back in his mind, this time in a dreamy tone, 'Hey, I might have acted all cool and stuff, but she's hot, and I'm only 18.' Ichigo clarified to nobody in particular.

"But no, I'm going to be teaching you Hoho and Hakuda, since they're my specialty." she told him.

"Sounds good, although I would like it if you would put some clothes." he said, to which Yoruichi's whole demeanor deflated, and she placed her hands of her hips.

"Really? What happened to the whole 'I'm not a boy' thing?" she asked and, before she knew it, Ichigo was back in front of her, pressing against her, a hand on her waist, letting her feel Ichigo's 'little man' who wasn't feeling all that little.

"Oh, nothing happened to that." he whispered in her ear, his tone this time actually holding lust in it, "It's just that seeing you like that right now is making me want to," 'Bend you over and fuck you into a coma. No, that sounds creepy.' "hmm, what's a way to say it, take you." 'That sounds really old styled, but to hell with it.'

Yoruichi froze for a second at that, she couldn't lie that the idea sounded tempting, and that she had been a little- a lot, turned on by it, as she disappeared.

'I can't believe he got me!' she scolded herself, 'What's up with him, normally I would laugh at somebody saying that. Although he's not just anybody, he feels like an alpha, he probably has that effect on everybody. Whatever, point is, it won't happen again and,' she smirked to herself as she put on her clothes, 'I'm going to have a lot of fun with him.'

 **"Ichigo! My boy! I'm so proud of you!"** Shiro said in his mind, fake sniffling and wiping a tear from his eye, **"I never thought you had it in you to that! 10/10 I say! 10/10!"** the spirit cried.

Ichigo just shook his head with a smirk at his spirit, although he couldn't help but feel a bit proud.

Yoruichi soon came back, fully clothed, "Not. A. Word." she said dangerously, "You won this one." Ichigo simply put his hands up.

"I hear ya loud and clear, and I can't wait to see who wins next time." he told her with a smirk, that she gave back as well.

"Hah," she huffed, "I almost pity you."

"What's there to pity? I'm getting into a 'who can be more sexual and embarrass the other more' contest with you. All I see in my future is good." he said.

"Point. Although you're soon going to learn not everything in your future is good, when I whoop your ass like the good teacher I am." she said as she got in a battle ready stance, with Ichigo following suit.

"I still don't see anything wrong with that, I'll take the pain if it means I'll get straddled by you in the end." he said smugly.

She smirked, lunging towards him and throwing a right hook that he barely had time to avoid, 'She's pretty fast.' Ichigo thought as he leaned back, avoiding the fist, although he was caught off guard by the leg sweep.

"And I can't wait to sit on you." she said with a smug tone in return, her arm pressed against his neck and their faces almost touching as Ichigo was laid flat on the floor, with Yoruichi straddling him, "Yield?" she asked, her breath hitting Ichigo's face.

"Yield." he replied. She took her arm off his neck, sitting back up, although she was still sat on Ichigo, with her hands on his chest, "See, and I didn't even need to feel that much pain." he said with a smirk.

"Maybe, but that was way too easy, I'll really have to whoop you into shape if you're that weak." she told him as she got up.

"Please, I was just testing the waters, this time I'll actually be serious." he said as he got up as well.

* * *

 _ **A couple hours of flirtatious fighting later...**_

They trained like that for a couple hours, with Ichigo proving that he was indeed pretty strong, as he could somewhat keep up with his teacher, although she was still better than him. They were now in the hot spring that the layer housed after their training session.

"Right there Ichigo! Oh yes, that's the spot! Ooooh you're so good..." Yoruichi moaned as she was straddled by Ichigo, the side of her face on the floor and a smile on her face.

Ichigo simply had a deadpan expression on his face as he kept giving Yoruichi the massage she had asked for, "Are you trying to turn me on on purpose?" he said.

"Why of course I am," she said as she turned her head around, "And from what your little friend is telling me, it's working." she said as she wiggled her hips, making Ichigo hold in a moan.

"Please, I'm straddling you and giving you a massage while we're _both_ naked in what is basically a hot tub. We're basically having sex. If I wasn't already turned on I'd be questioning if I was gay or not." he said, "And I'll let you know I'm having a really hard time not giving in to what Shiro is telling me to do and simply fuck you stupid." he continued, still surprised that he could have this kind of conversation with anybody. But he had learned that that was simply the type of person Yoruichi was, you could tell her you wanted to fuck her into a coma to her face and she would simply laugh it off and hit you with a comeback, unless you were some random person in the street, or Urahara.

"Aha, I'm afraid that won't happen today, although I really am tempted to take you up on that." she replied.

It was at that point Ichigo decided to really think about what was happening, 'Guys, can we all agree this doesn't make any sense?' he thought.

 _"Yeah, this really is incredible, you're one lucky motherfucker Ichigo, although I'm not complaining, I'm enjoying this as much as you are."_ Ossan said.

'No, like actually, I just met this chick at the start of the day, and now this is happening, my virgin brain can't comprehend this. I might seem cool and composed on the outside, but I have no fucking clue what's going on.'

 **"I don't know either, and I don't care, this is a-mei-zing..."** Shiro thought, his face a mix of all emotions, although mainly pleasure, with his soul visibly floating out of his body.

'Poor Shiro, he's out of order after all this.' Ichigo said, mentally putting a hand on his heart and making a soldier's salute, 'To another fallen soldier.' he said sadly as he fake wiped a tear from his eye.

'No but seriously, what the fuck is going on.' he said.

 _"It's pretty simple, you guys are very similar, Yoruichi simply feels comfortable around you, like you do. You're also very powerful, even if she can't physically feel it, you exude a powerful, alpha like aura that's probably subconsciously attracting her to you."_ Mikasa explained.

Ichigo sighed, 'I guess you're right, I can't say she's not fun to be around.'

 _"Just stop questioning everything and enjoy it, it's not often two people interact like this after only a couple hours of meeting each other."_ Mikasa said as she forcibly kicked him out of his thoughts and back into the real world, where only a couple seconds had passed.

He decided to take the advice Mikasa had given him, and appreciate that he had somehow ended up in this situation literally every man on earth would pay to be in, "So, do you do this with everybody, or am I a first to make it this far?" he asked as he hit a particularly sensitive spot on her back, making her jump a bit in surprise.

"Pfft, I'm not some slut, I don't just do this with everybody I see. You're different, it's not often I meet somebody I can so naturally talk to, I can tell we're very similar, we're both laid-back, not exactly looking for a romantic relationship, but still looking for somebody that can be there for us when we need it, it's pretty obvious." she said.

"So you're saying we're like 'friends with benefits'?" he questioned.

"Ugh, I don't know what we are, and I don't care. Just go with it and stop questioning everything will you?" she said in a exasperated tone, "I like being around you and you like being around me, we have an oddly sexual relationship, we might fuck, but we don't want to be in a commitment like a relationship simply because that's how we are, that's all, what's so complicated?"

"Who said I liked you?" he said with a smirk.

"Oh, cause you don't?" she replied as she pushed her hips a bit more against him, using the extra space to turn around, looking straight at him.

Ichigo was trying really hard in that moment, trying really hard to go against his instincts that were screaming at to do something about the brown skinned beauty under him. Although he was unconsciously leaning down, and before he knew it, he had given up on resisting and had completely leaned down, surprising Yoruichi, who quickly got over it and reacted in kind, kissing him back.

They made out in that position for a couple minutes, both Ichigo and Yoruichi in their own world as they ran their hands across the other. Finally, they broke up. Staring at each other.

"Does that answer your question?" Ichigo asked.

"It was a rhetorical question, I knew you couldn't resist me." she said as she went in for a second turn, although Ichigo's eyes widened right as she said that, as he jumped out of the spring. Yoruichi looked at him, surprised, "What's wrong?" she asked, a small fear in her that she might have done something wrong.

"I just remembered that Isshin asked me to have a dinner with the Shiba family. And that I agreed, what time do you think it is?" he asked.

"I don't know, although I'm sure you're almost late by now." she answered.

"Damn." he cursed, "Oh, before I forget, I would like for you to get a couple things from the real world for tomorrow, trust me, we'll both enjoy it." he said.

Yoruichi raised an eyebrow, "And what would that be?" she questioned, to which Ichigo told her what he wanted, only ending up with Yoruichi being even more confused, "Uhh, okay."

"Just don't question it, you'll like it, trust me." he said with a smirk.

He dried off quickly after that, putting his clothes back on, "See ya." he said as he flashed up the stairs and out the lair.

"See ya." Yoruichi whispered, unable to not feel a bit of disappointment at the abrupt ending, although she quickly got over it, getting out and getting dressed, "Now about what he asked me to get..." she trailed off.

* * *

 **Chapter 11, done.**

 **Alright so, about the whole IchigoxYoruichi thing, if you're confused about it, feel free to ask me, I understand it might be a bit weird how quickly it all happened.**

 **This chapter might seem a bit filler, and to be honest I don't have much to say to that, so, sorry.**

 **Also, me not including what Ichigo asked Yoruichi to get was intentional, I'll just say it'll be a bit controversial, and no, it's not some sex toy.**

 **Thanks for reading.**


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Diary of a prepubescent teen. (The thirst)

 **Another chapter, another awkward author's note...**

 **First things first, thanks for 10,000 views! Although fuck the couple thousand people who read the first chapters and dropped the story, you can suck my dick...**

 **jk. I probably deserved it after the 2 month breaks I kept taking.**

 **Now about some of the reviews I got last chapter, there were two of them that stood out, with the first one betting on Rangiku being Ichigo's step mom, which to be honest, really cracked me up. Not because it was a bad idea, but just because picturing it made me laugh. Just think about it, Rangiku being married to Isshin and having 2 kids at the start of Bleach cannon. It just made me laugh, especially because I was considering Ichigo getting with Rangiku as a possibility, so imagining writing that while she was married to Isshin was hilarious, talk about revenge.**

 **Now a second review asked wether this was an official pairing or noncommittal sex, it'll be a bit of both. As I think I've said by now, both Ichigo and Yoruichi's personalities are not that of 'I've been boyfriend and girlfriend with him/her forever and they're the only person I've ever been with', they're more free, laid-back, and would rather be able to do whatever they want without having to worry about a commitment, however they know that if it ever comes to it, they'll always be there for each other. So it will basically be noncommittal sex for now, until the end of the story, where they'll probably find each other naturally as they 'grow old' and mature a bit. Key word being probably, I haven't decided how this story will end yet, but that is a possibility.**

 **And last things last, I think that all of the reviews I've gotten over the last 8 chapters have been positive, and even then, I've barely gotten any hate or 'flames' during this story, so thank you for that. And also I think as I'm writing this chapter this story is about 8 reviews away from 100, so that's nice and dandy.**

 **Alright, I think that's all that needed to be said so without further ado...**

 **LEGO!**

"Talking"

'Thinking'

 **"Demon/Hollow talking"**

 **'Demon/Hollow thinking'**

 _"Spirit Talking"_

 _'Spirit thinking'_

 **Disclaimer: Don't own Bleach.**

* * *

 **Chapter 12: Diary of a prepubescent teen (The thirst)**

Ichigo sped through the Seireitei, making sure not to be seen, which was way to easy for that matter. All the way along struggling not to think about Yoruichi, and how much more fun he could have with her compared to where he was actually going. Although he couldn't help himself not to think of it, the feel of her... he shook his head, and started going faster, making it to the Shiba household in a couple minutes.

He landed in front of the main gates to the, for lack of a better word, mansion, and walked through it, although he was quickly stopped by one the housekeepers.

"Excuse me, access to the Shiba household is strictly restricted to family members or people that have been invited, please state your business." he said politely.

"Uh, yeah, I was invited by Isshin to have dinner here tonight, you can ask him." Ichigo replied.

"Understood, please wait here while I go get Shiba-sama." he said and turned around, heading into the house, of which he quickly came out of with Isshin, who was dressed in a regal garb.

As soon as Isshin saw Ichigo, a big goofy grin appeared on his face as he jumped towards the teen, wrapping his arm around his neck, surprising him, "It's fine!" he exclaimed, "From now on Ichigo is allowed full access here, he is my son after all!" he said as he dragged Ichigo passed a surprised butler and into the mansion.

As soon as they stepped into said mansion, Ichigo ripped Isshin's arm of him, looking at him with a deadpan face, "What the fuck was that?" he asked, annoyed at the intrusion of his private space.

"Oh, no, my son!" Isshin exclaimed, crying anime tears, "You've become a delinquent! Hikari, what are we going to do with him!" he cried, as Ichigo looked at him, not sure which emotion to adopt on his face.

"Is this what you're like when you're not serious?" he asked, his tone more frustrated as he rubbed his temples with one of his hands, 'I could be losing my virginity right now.' he thought desperately.

"Yes, Isshin often is like this, but his antics are what we love about him." he heard a soft voice say to his left, as he turned he was greeted with who he could only guess was Isshin's wife.

She was smaller than Isshin, a wild guess told Ichigo she probably reached at his shoulders, with long black hair, reaching down to her waist, she had kind brown eyes, and a motherly smile that reminded him too much of his mother for his liking, she looked young, but then again, everybody in Soul Society looked young, unless they were millennia old.

"Hello, Ichigo. My name is Hiraki Shiba, as I'm sure you've figured by now, I'm Isshin's wife, and technically, your step-mother." she said.

"Yes indeed, I found myself a good one, didn't I?" Isshin, who had somehow found his way next to her, with an arm around her shoulder, said, to which Hiraki slapped him on the arm, although she was giggling.

"Yeah..." Ichigo said.

"Follow us into the dining room Ichigo, dinner should be ready soon." Hiraki said as the two of them walked deeper into the mansion, with Ichigo following behind.

They shortly found their way into the huge dining room, where Ichigo saw who he could only guess was his step-sisters and cousins.

They were sat on opposite sides of the table, making it easy for Ichigo to guess who was who. On the left were his sisters, they both had black hair, although one of them had a rougher expression, she was more tomboyish, while the second one looked more cheerful, innocent. His cousins on the other side were older, with one of them being a somewhat large man, who's entire credibility was taken away by his sister, who was hitting him upside the head, scolding him for something, said sister was...

'Oh for fuck's sake...' he thought, 'Is it a law for everybody in Soul Society to have huge tits?! Forget about it, she's your cousin.' Ichigo dismissed that thought, aside from her... assets... she was normal, with black hair and oddly enough, a tomboyish expression.

"Ichigo, meet your sisters, and my two beautiful daughters, Yuzu and Karin!" Isshin said as he was instantly in-between the two, an arm around both their shoulders. As Ichigo had guessed, Yuzu was the more cheerful one, and seemed amused at her father's antics, smiling and giggling, while Karin on the other hand...

Ichigo had to keep himself from bursting out laughing at the expression on her face, she practically had 'desperation' written on her forehead, as she looked like she was debating whether flipping her father on the table was a good idea.

"Hey, Nii-san!" Yuzu said gleefully.

"Sup." Karin said in a bored tone.

"Sup." Ichigo said in his own bored tone, showing he wasn't teasing her, but felt the same way, to which she cracked a small smile despite her situation.

"And these are your cousins, Ganju and Kukaku." Hiraki said, at that the two got over the shock of seeing what looked like their dead brother's twin and nodded at him.

"Hey." Ganju said, still looking like he was lost in his thoughts.

"Sup." Kukaku said with a smirk, that Ichigo couldn't help but relate to the mischievous smirk Yoruichi often gave, although it lacked the teasing side, which was good.

"Sup." Ichigo replied with his own smirk, maybe not all of them were horrible.

They all sat at the table, with dinner coming soon afterwards, which they ate in a relative silence, although to Ichigo's surprise, it wasn't an awkward silence, like he was expecting.

They soon finished dinner and the table were cleared by the maidens, "So Ichigo, could you tell us more about you, maybe about your life?" Hiraki asked, with the same smile she had had the entire night when talking to him, the motherly smile that reminded him way to much of his mother.

"I guess, although it's not that interesting, and pretty depressing." he warned.

"It's fine, we just want to know more about you, Ichi-nii." Yuzu said.

'Where did that nickname come from?' Ichigo thought, although he begrudgingly didn't find himself disliking it.

And so he told them a shortened version of his life, making careful note to only include the important parts of his mother's death, he didn't want to make things more depressing than they had to be.

"That must have been really hard on you, Ichigo." Hiraki said sadly, as hard as he had tried, all the members at the table had sobered up at his story, with Yuzu crying a bit.

"You're so strong, Ichi-nii." Yuzu said, sniffling.

"Yeah, I guess it was hard, but I got over it." Ichigo said, shrugging his shoulders, "Besides, I couldn't ruin my life over it, that's not what she would have wanted." he continued, unaware of the effect those words were having on most of the members at the table.

And so he continued with his story, quickly getting to the part where he met Rukia, at which point he was interrupted, "Excuse me, did you say Kuchiki Rukia?" Ganju asked. Kukaku next to him, shook her head, seemingly in frustration at her brother.

"Yeah, what's the problem?" Ichigo questioned.

Ganju suddenly got up, slamming his hands on the table, "She's a murderer! She's the one that killed Shiba-nii! How could you associate with such a person!?" He exclaimed, scaring Yuzu and Karin, although Karin hid her surprise and small amount of fear.

Kukaku looked like she was ready to hit her brother before Ichigo interrupted her, "Sit down, Ganju." he said calmly, although his voice held an edge.

"What?" he asked, his tone still angry.

"I said sit down. You're scaring Yuzu and Karin." he repeated, this time looking Ganju in the eyes, his face still blank, although Ganju could see a threat hidden behind it, as he quickly sat down, his eyes wide and a small bead of sweat running down his temple, "I don't know where you're pulling that kind of information from, but I can guarantee you Rukia didn't kill Kaien, at least not voluntarily." he took a pause, making sure Ganju wasn't going to interrupt him again, "After Ukitake told me how similar I was to Kaien I understood why Rukia acted the way she did around me, she still mourns his death to this day, so I won't have you accusing her of murder, she probably cared about Kaien as much as you did." he told Ganju, who's eyes were wide, this time with shock, as he turned to Kukaku, who simply nodded.

Yuzu and Karin, meanwhile, were caught in a roller coaster of emotions, as they had never been told who their brother's killer was, so this conversation had been greatly confusing for them, "If I had to guess, I'd say Kaien was probably controlled by a hollow, killing him as soon as he was taken over, and Rukia had to do the unfortunate deed of finishing him off, which is why she feels so guilty over it, and why you thought she killed him, when in reality, she did him a great service." Ichigo guessed, his suspicions being confirmed as he saw Isshin, Hiraki and Kukaku's eyes widen.

"How... how did you guess that?" Kukaku stuttered, shocked by how accurate he had been.

"It's pretty simple. Before Ganju said Rukia had killed Kaien I couldn't know, but since he did it was an easy guess. Seeing that Rukia feels so guilty about Kaien's death, it must have been an accident, so that leaves two options. Either it was an indeed accident, although that option is already out the window, as with the law Soul Society works with, she would have still been executed, so that only leaves the option that an incident with a hollow caused it, as to how I guessed he was controlled, I just couldn't really think of much else." he explained with a shrug at the end.

Kukaku recovered after a bit, smirking as she looked at Isshin, "I'm pretty surprised to see that your son is so smart, with how stupid you are." she said, to which they all laughed, with Isshin fake crying into his wife's shoulder, who was laughing as well.

"Oh Hiraki! What did I do to deserve this cruel treatment." he cried.

"She is right Tou-san, you're a bit too stupid to have birthed anybody so smart." Karin said in a bored manner, to which Ichigo smirked and Isshin flinched, acting as if he had been shot.

"You do realise that by saying that you're calling yourself stupid?" Ichigo asked, to which Karin smirked.

"I said 'anybody', I was including myself in the group too." she replied, making Ichigo huff in amusement.

"Hey!" Yuzu whined, "What about me?" she complained.

"Don't worry about it Yuzu, we're all smarter than Goat-chin over there." Ichigo said, making the entire table, aside from Isshin, who by now had fallen out of his chair from all the shots he had taken, burst out in laughter, even Karin, who was always up for a good laugh when making fun of her father.

"That was a good one." Karin said as she recovered from her laughing, giving her hand for Ichigo to high-five, which he did.

"What did I do to deserve such cruel treatment..." Isshin whispered sadly as he brought himself back up, although on the inside he couldn't be happier at how fast Ichigo had integrated into the family, aside from the small incident with Ganju, which had been forgotten by now, as even he was laughing along.

The night continued like that, with Ichigo finishing his story quickly, flying past his altercation with the quincy, as they didn't need to know that, and them laughing.

By the end of the night it was only Kukaku and Ichigo left, with Yuzu and Karin being sent off to bed, although Ichigo had promised, with less struggle than he thought he would put up, to come back every once in a while, Hiraki and Isshin having gone to bed and Ganju simply leaving.

"Want a drink?" Kukaku asked, she found herself liking her new cousin, not only because of how similar he was to Kaien, but also because he was pretty fun in his own way, which is why she was asking him if he wanted a drink, she couldn't picture herself drinking with her deceased older brother.

"Eeeh, I usually don't like to drink, as a matter of fact I've avoided alcohol on purpose, all I've seen it do is ruin people's lives, but I guess one time won't hurt, and besides I doubt it's nearly as harmful to souls as it is to humans." Ichigo said.

"Good thinking, alcohol isn't that potent on powerful souls, the more Reiryoku you have, the less potent it is, so we can both drink our fair share." Kukaku said, pouring herself a full glass.

Ichigo raised an eyebrow, "The more reiryoku, the less potent?" he asked, to which she nodded, "Oh boy, just give me the whole bottle then." he said, to which Kukaku rose her own eyebrow.

"Ok then, hotshot, either you're trying to get really shit faced, or you're a reiryoku monster." Kukaku said with a smirk, handing him the bottle, which he instantly started drinking, "Although it's odd, you speak with a surprising amount of experience with stuff like this, even though I'm pretty sure you're rather young for that in the real world." she told him as he downed the entire bottle in one go, "Come on, leave some for me." she whined, looking at the bottle sadly, to which he smirked.

"Sorry, but if what you said is true, I'm gonna need a lot more to feel anything." he said, "And about what you said, yes, there is a legal age for drinking and stuff like that, it's 18, and I'm 18. I just simply... bypass, the law, yeah."

"But you said you avoided alcohol, meaning you've done something other than that-" she cut herself off and looked at him disapprovingly as she realised the only option that was left, "I remember hearing of it a while ago, humans have those things they call 'drugs', is that what you're using?" she asked.

"You're making me sound like an addict, it's nothing like that, besides, with the definition you have in your head, alcohol belongs in the 'drug' category, if anything, what I do is better than alcohol." Ichigo said.

"Oh, and how is it better than alcohol?" she asked.

"I'm gonna sound like some activist right now, but to put it simply, it doesn't harm your body and isn't addictive, how do I know that? Because it didn't do shit to me." he explained, "And I've been doing it since I was 13, to deal with my mother's depression when she died."

"I'm not gonna lie that if that's true it is better than alcohol, what's it called?" she asked, intrigued.

"It might not have the same name here, but in the real world it's called cannabis, marijuana, weed, it has a lot of names." he said.

"Huh, never heard of it, although maybe it's a thing here." Kukaku said, shrugging, "I don't really care, it doesn't seem to have fucked you up or anything, so I can't judge you."

'Oh, it fucked me up alright...' he thought, smirking internally, "This sake or whatever it is ain't doing anything." he told her.

Her eyebrows raised as he that, "Really? You just downed an entire bottle and you're not feeling it, you really must be some type of monster."

"Eh, it's probably a good thing." he said as he stood up, "I have to be at the academy tomorrow, and I don't want to be hungover. Oh, that's also something weed doesn't do, you wake up feeling fine with it." he said.

"Wait, you mean you don't get hungover from your 'weed' thing?" she asked, amazed, to which Ichigo nodded, "You have to let me try it then! How do you get it?" she exclaimed, stars in her eyes.

"I don't know how you grow it, it might be a thing you can find in the Rukongai, but I can't promise anything." he said as he walked out the room, "See ya."

"Yeah, see ya." she said, disappointed.

* * *

 ** _The next morning..._**

Ichigo woke up in his academy bed, and much to his annoyance, he had a small headache, 'Fuckin' alcohol, I hate it.' he thought, checking what time it was, 'I got some time.'.

"What's up Yoruichi?" he asked, looking up and behind him to his window sill, where the small cat was sitting.

"I'm just here to tell you to be ready for training this afternoon, with how much trouble you caused me getting this, it was annoying as shit, and while it doesn't smell that bad, it's really strong." she said, holding up a small, ziploc bag full of a green, fungus like herb, and dropping it on his head.

Ichigo, instead of picking it up, breathed in strongly, inhaling the scent and smiling wide, "You're the best." he said sincerely.

"I know, don't mention it." she said, although it seemed he wasn't talking to her, as he was cradling the small packet.

"I'm sorry for leaving you for so long, you know, things happen. I really didn't mean too-" he was abruptly swiped across the face, "Hey! I was just reuniting with my- oh." he stopped as he looked at Yoruichi's face, which was about as angry as a cat's face was ever going to get, "You did a good job too." he said dismissively, going back to cradling his prized possession.

She growled, making Ichigo turn back to her, "Alright, alright, jeez... you want to smell it too?" he asked, handing the pack to her, her facial expression didn't change, and Ichigo rolled his eyes, "Okay, okay, thank you for all the hard work you put into reuniting me with my unofficial child, oh sexiest woman on the entire planet, how could I ever repay you?" he said exaggeratedly, "I know just the thing, I'll let you have a bit of this," he said, shaking the pack, "And this." pointing at himself, "Although all that will be pointless if you didn't bring the kit." he finished.

"If by 'the kit', you mean this, then yes, I brought it." she said, throwing a second ziploc bag, although this one was bigger, and carrying all from a Swiss knife to a lighter, to his face, which he caught with his second hand, "And I damn well better get some of this mystery product you made me drag my ass around Karakura to get."

"Come on now, I'm sure Karakura loved having you dragging your beautiful ass across it, not many can claim that happened to them. Although I am one of those people." he said with a smirk, "And besides, the money you used was mine."

"There's no winning an argument against you, is there?" Ichigo shook his head negative, with a smug expression, "Although I can beat you at something other than an argument, like after your classes when I beat your ass in training." she said with a smirk.

"Eh, whatever, if we weren't restricted to Hakuda and Hoho, it might be a bit more even." he said, going for his uniform to change.

"Oh? And who said we were going to be restricted to that?" Yoruichi said mischievously, to which Ichigo whipped his head around so fast he almost got whiplash.

"Oh..." he said chuckling, "You're going down." he replied.

"We'll see about that." Yoruichi told him, turning back around outside, "Anyways, I'll see you later, be ready to get your ass whooped." she said, flash-stepping away and leaving Ichigo.

'Tonight'll be fun, in more than one way...' Ichigo thought, already looking forward to it.

* * *

 _ **A couple hours later... after class...**_

The classes had gone by exceptionally fast, seeing as that the entire time during them Ichigo was more or less fantasying about the things he would be doing in a couple hours.

And now he was running as fast as he could towards the training layer, making his way there in record speed, even though it was only his second time going there.

He landed on the ledge, making his way deeper into the layer, deciding to go down into the training area when he didn't find Yoruichi anywhere.

He jumped down, landing softly, to be greeted by Yoruichi in her human form, fully clothed and looking at him with mirth, "So, you ready to get destroyed?" Yoruichi said, cracking her knuckles.

Ichigo smirked, "Suuuure..." he drawled out, "So, what are the rules?" he asked.

"No rules, you can use anything at your disposition, I want to get a full idea of what your strengths and weaknesses are." Yoruichi said, getting in her normal battle ready position, "Ready?" she asked, smirking.

Ichigo drew his sword, not holding it in any particular ready position, "Yeah." he replied.

"You sure?" Yoruichi asked, scared that she would have to already scold him for an error he was making, when Ichigo didn't respond she sighed internally, "Well then, lesson one-" she said as she disappeared, appearing in one of the many weak spots in Ichigo 'defense', "Don't just stand..." she stopped talking as she saw that Ichigo had indeed interrupted her attack, with his left arm, and had his sword pointed at her neck.

"Don't just stand there, with no defense?" Ichigo repeated, "I wasn't just standing there. You see, since I haven't exactly had time to perfect a style, I've basically just been using my instincts, and natural talent, to defeat hollows, which worked fine, but I knew I couldn't rely on that when fighting actual people, low-ranked shinigami maybe, but against anybody of your level, or Aizen's, I'd get destroyed. So I developed my own 'style'," he said that word with quotation marks, as Yoruichi had retracted her arm, "That used my instincts, and my intelligence, to predict what my opponent was going to do. For the first move, I let my guard down on purpose, making my opponent think I had no defense, so that his movement was more predictable, then I would block their first attack using simply my instincts, which obviously worked. After that it was simply a matter of using both my instincts and my intelligence at the same time, just from that first attack of yours I already knew the next five or so moves you were going to do. Simply by analyzing the way your body moved during your first attack I was able to tell what your most usual attack pattern is, it's barely detectable, but your muscles'll have the smallest twitch when their memory is activated. For example, during your first jump towards me, I spotted about 37 different twitches, meaning there were 37 different ways you could have opened up the fight, to be expected by a fighter of your caliber. Basically what I'm saying is that simply by seeing your first move, I already know your next 5 or so moves, unless you decide to go for a move your body isn't used to, in which case I can see that too, which lets me understand you aren't used to whatever move you're doing, meaning you'll have more openings, small holes in your defense, and you won't know about them as well as you would with a move you've used for ages." Ichigo explained.

Yoruichi simply stared at him with wide eyes, trying to make sense of what he had just said, "That's... incredible." she slowly said, "You're making it sound like you're talking about chess or something."

Ichigo shrugged, "I guess it is pretty similar to that."

"Although if that's how we're gonna compare things, you're like a chess super-computer, how can you even think of that many things at a time?" she asked.

"I don't know, it's pretty natural, I don't have to go into some super focus mode to do it or anything, as long as I pay attention to it it's pretty easy." he said sheepishly, he really wasn't good at taking compliments.

"Please, being able to do that is amazing! You barely even need a full-fledged style if that's what you're doing at all times." Yoruichi exclaimed.

"Well, actually, there is one pretty glaring weakness." Ichigo interrupted.

"Huh?"

"It's pretty simple actually, the only thing I can predict with this is movement and such, I can't predict attacks like Kido, or Zanpakuto attacks, so while yes it is useful it's not a 'be all end all'." Ichigo said.

"Come on, nobody can predict attacks like that, and even then, I wouldn't be surprised if you could come up with a way to do it." Yoruichi said, "Although that does fuck things up for me, since I'm all about physical attacks and close combat."

"Well not really, even if I can predict all your movements, and see all the weaknesses within them, it doesn't mean I'll always be able to do anything about it, like yesterday, you were so fast I ended missing a couple twitches, and even when I could predict your movement correctly, you have to have a weak spot, which you didn't always have, so I was simply outclassed." Ichigo explained.

"Aww, you're gonna make me blush." Yoruichi said, slapping his shoulder, "But anyways, I think we've gotten sidetracked from our fight, and don't think you've automatically won because of your whole super-computer thing, I still have a couple tricks up my sleeve."

Ichigo smirked, "I'm sure you do."

* * *

 _ **A couple more hours of fighting later...**_

"Alright, that's enough." Yoruichi said as she cancelled her Shundo.

Ichigo nodded, as he too cancelled his powers, "That was fun." he said with a smirk, wiping the sweat of his forehead.

"Yeah, although I really am rusty if I'm only borderline winning my fights against some 18 year old who got his powers a couple weeks ago." Yoruichi said, breathing heavily as well, "Come on, I want to get in the spring already." she told him as she started walking towards the bath, with Ichigo catching up to her.

"Hey now, I might be 'some 18 kid who got his powers a couple years ago', but I also am 'a perfect hybrid of all 4 races, giving me the potential to be the most powerful creature in the universe.'." he said, his voice mocking Urahara's, making Yoruichi laugh.

"True." she said as she undressed herself, soon being naked in front of Ichigo, and let herself fall in the spring, groaning as soon as she settled down in it, "Aww, yeah. Come on Ichigo, don't you wanna give me a massage?" she said teasingly, giggling as he almost instantly undressed himself, jumping in the bath just as fast.

"Yes the fuck I do, and this time you better give me one as well." he said as he sat down on the edge of the spring, closing his eyes and groaning as the magical water took effect on him.

He sat there for a couple seconds, before he felt the water shift around him, and opened his eyes to see Yoruichi swimming towards him, a mischievous smirk on her face, "Hmm," she started as she reached him, straddling him and wrapping her arms around his neck, "I was thinking we could save the massage for later, don't you think?" she said huskily, bringing her face closer to his.

"You know what?" Ichigo replied as he started nipping at her neck, reaching up to her earlobe, which he nipped on as well, "I think that's a great idea." he whispered as she shivered, moaning a bit.

At that point, Ichigo couldn't recall what had triggered within him, it was the first time he had felt anything like it, the instant he felt her shiver, her hairs standing up, the small moan that escaped her mouth, the feel of her slender legs, wrapped around his waist, her body pressed up against his, the feel of her breasts pressing against his upper body, close to his face, her, now hard, nipples, rubbing against him.

He lost it.

Driven by what he could only describe as a fire inside of his stomach, he simply let his instincts take over, and before he knew it, it was over. Both of them still in the spring, with Yoruichi still straddling him, although this time she was breathing heavily, and using him as support.

"That was amazing, Ichigo." Yoruichi said softly, looking at him with half-lidded eyes.

He took a second to answer, entranced by her eyes, still glowing a bit with lust, that was dying down, "Yeah, it was." he agreed.

He could still feel it, the feel of her legs, her breasts pressed up against him, but this time, it didn't light that fire again. He knew if he wanted to he could light it again and go for a round 2, 3, 4... but he didn't want to, and he didn't think Yoruichi did either. They were both too busy enjoying what had just happened, although in the future he had no doubt there wouldn't be that phase, and round 2 would be instant.

But for now, all he wanted to do was sit back, and relax.

'Which reminds me.' he thought, smirking as he lifted Yoruichi, who was by now half-asleep, off him, "Don't go to sleep yet, there's still one last thing we have to do." Ichigo said, his energy back as he remembered what he had asked Yoruichi to get.

"Oh come on..." Yoruichi whined, "You were so comfortable."

Ichigo ignored her whining, taking both the ziploc bags out of his clothes, "Since it's the weekend I can sleep here instead of going back to the Academy. So are there any beds up there we can use for the night?" he asked.

"Yeah, there's a bed that can fit us both up there." she said, her mind still hazy.

"Alright then, wake up." Ichigo said as he called her out, finally, his patience wore down, as he simply decided to wave the packet Yoruichi had gone through so much trouble to get in front of her nose.

She stood up abruptly, "Huh, what? I'm up."

"Come on, we're going up stairs, and you're finally going to see what I was talking about." Ichigo said, that woke Yoruichi up, as she lifted herself out of the spring, and they started walking towards the ladder.

"Soooo, what does this 'magical ingredient' that you've claimed is your unofficial child do?" Yoruichi asked, still eyeing him hungrily, something Ichigo had to ignore.

He smirked, "I'm not telling you, it's a surprise. Don't worry, you'll like it." Ichigo assured.

She huffed, "I better, since it stopped us from continuing our _activities._ " she said with a mischievous smirk, that Ichigo returned.

"Oh, we'll still be doing that, as a matter of fact, I'm especially looking forward to it." he replied as he reached the ladder, opting for simply jumping, something Yoruichi did as well.

They reached the room, that simply had a dresser and a king sized bed, "You can just lie on the bed while I get this ready." he set as he set both the bags on the dresser, while Yoruichi went and lied down.

"Make it fast, or else I might fall asleep." she said.

She watched him curiously, as he spent a good 5 minutes rolling what looked like a simple cigarette, "Huh?" she asked, "Were you hyping me up for a single cigarette? The hell?"

Ichigo smirked, taking the lighter and lighting the cigarette-like object from it's tail end, putting his lips on the other end and breathing in, his body visibly relaxing as he breathed out. He wiggled his index finger negative, "No, this isn't just a cigarette, that's gross, just try it, you'll see." he said, handing the blunt towards her.

She took it, looking at it curiously, "It's not a cigarette, but you can smoke it like one, just be sure to inhale after you breath in the first time, or else it won't do anything." Ichigo said, lying down on the bed as Yoruichi brought the cigarette to her mouth, breathing in.

Ichigo's eyes widened as he remembered another thing he forgot to tell her, "Wait, you might- oh, too late." he said as he saw Yoruichi eye's bulge, as she erupted in a coughing fit, "want to be careful, the first couple times'll be hard on your throat." he finished.

She coughed furiously for a good minute or two, before she was finally able to stop. Looking up at Ichigo's smirking face with teary eyes, she managed to utter out a small 'Fuck you.' before she started coughing again, although this time she stopped earlier, inhaling shallow breaths as she steadied herself.

"You okay?" Ichigo asked as he patter her back, his voice a bit worried even though he was smiling. She simply nodded, not trusting herself to speak yet, "It happened to me too, happens to most people actually, just wait a bit. You'll be fine." Ichigo reassured her, lying back down and taking another puff, "Aaaah, it's been a while." he said in a relaxed tone.

Yoruichi lied down too, her eyes red and puffy, both from her coughing fit and the weed, "I hate you." was the first thing she said after she regained her voice, "Now give me that." she continued, snatching the blunt from his hands.

Ichigo chuckled, "Sorry about that, should have warned you. Although I did tell you you would like it." he said, looking at her as she took another hit, this time not erupting in a coughing fit.

"How do you humans find stuff like this? This is crazy." she asked, to which Ichigo shrugged.

"The human race has a talent for finding ways to pleasure ourselves, and do nothing at the same time." Ichigo replied, "Are you sure you're okay though? I know some people can't handle stuff like this." he questioned.

"Please, I'm not a lightweight. Sure, the loss of control is kinda weird, but it's not like I'm in a dangerous situation or anything." she answered.

"Good, I didn't feel like having to deal with that."

They stayed in a comfortable silence after that, both enjoying their highs, and each others presence, until the blunt was done, "Aww..." Yoruichi whined, "Can you make another one?"

Ichigo chuckled, "No. One because I'm too lazy right now, two because it's not needed, and three..." he said as he rolled himself over, on top of Yoruichi, "I can think of something better to do." he said huskily as he started kissing and biting her neck, "I usually smoke alone," he started in between bites, "But I've always wanted to do this while high." he finished, going down to her breasts, that were looking oh so many times more appealing at the moment, only being more encouraged by Yoruichi's light moans.

* * *

Ichigo didn't know, and didn't care, how much time had passed since he and Yoruichi had started their _activities_ for the second time, all he knew was that that was the best experience he had ever felt.

"That was even more amazing, Ichigo." Yoruichi whispered, collapsing on top of him, rolling to the side, and finally falling asleep.

"Agreed." he said, closing his eyes and following her lead.

* * *

 ** _Next morning..._**

Ichigo woke up first the next morning. After what was possibly the best night's sleep he had ever had, he had the best wake up he had ever had as well. With Yoruichi lying at his side, her left arm across his chest and her other arm around his neck, her head tucked in the crane of his neck, her breasts pressed up against him and her legs intertwining with his.

He smiled, the goofiest smile had ever smiled, as he remembered what had happened last night.

 **"I'M SO PROUD OF YOU, ICHIGO!"** Shiro yelled in his mind, **"We raised you well."** he said, sniffling and wiping a fake tear from his eye.

 _"Lucky bastard..."_ Ossan muttered.

'What are you complaining about Ossan, you felt the exact same things I did last night." Ichigo replied.

 _"Maybe, but there's a difference in between actually experiencing it and what I felt."_ he complained.

'Whatever, maybe you can ask Mikasa.' he said with a smirk.

 _"Huh? The hell are you talking about!"_ Mikasa exclaimed, _"I'm not having sex with him."_

'Unlucky, Ossan.' Ichigo said, as he was taken out of his thoughts by Yoruichi stirring, "You up?" he asked.

She mumbled something incoherent in his neck, making him chuckle, "What was that?" he questioned, amused.

She lifted her head, looking directly at him, her eyes still red, "Fuck you." she said tonelessly, letting her head drop back down.

Ichigo chuckled, lifting himself up and out of bed, to which Yoruichi groaned, "Come on, five more minutes..." she complained, replacing Ichigo's body with the blanket.

He huffed, "I don't know why you would, but do you guys have a kitchen in here?" he asked, looking in the drawer and putting on a pair of underwear and jeans.

"Uh? Oh yeah, Urahara set this place up so that he could stay here for a long period of time, hence the bed." she answered.

"Alright then, I'm gonna go get something to eat, feel free to join." he told her, exiting the room.

At the mention of food, Yoruichi's head immediately shot up, looking around, "What? Wait for me." she said, getting up as hastily as she could and putting on a random shirt that was too big for her from the drawer.

By the time she had found her groggy and disoriented self all the way to the kitchen, Ichigo was already eating, having made a simple glass of tea and some toast for the both of them.

He looked towards her, his eyes almost widening as he stopped chewing his toast, leaving it hanging from his mouth, 'Oh boy, here we go again.' he thought, staring at her, 'Why is it that she somehow looks even more attractive like this?' he questioned, staring openly at her legs, and feeling himself get even more aroused by the second.

They ate their breakfast in silence, with Ichigo too busy staring at Yoruichi, and Yoruichi too busy eating, although she did spot the stare she was getting, and internally smirked, picking up the dishes and making for the sink, swaying her hips on purpose, and taking note to stick her ass out as she put the dishes in the sink.

Ichigo internally growled as he had to force himself not to jump her at that second, 'She's doing it that on purpose, the little minx.' he thought, his self control dwindling the more his eyes stayed stuck on her figure. However, when she turned her head around, making direct eye contact with him and biting her lip, while at the same time giving her plump ass a small jiggle, he stopped trying, and the next thing Yoruichi knew, she was pinned up against the wall, her hands stuck up above her head.

"You're really trying my patience." Ichigo said huskily, looking at her with lust filled eyes, which she returned.

"I was such a bad girl, messing with you like that." she said mischievously, wrapping her legs around his waist, "I think I deserve to be punished." she finished, biting her lower lip.

'What did I do to deserve this?' he thought, going for her neck as she giggled, 'Although it's not like I'm complaining.'

* * *

 **I honestly don't know why I wrote so many semi-lemon scenes in between Yoruichi and Ichigo, I guess it's just to give you an idea of what they're basically going to be doing when they're together and not training. Smoking weed and fucking. What a perfect relationship, something that will unfortunately never, ever, ever... ever... ever... ever, happen to me. Sad face.**

 **Also, in case you didn't guess, the little 'controversial' thing I was talking about last chapter was the weed thing, reason why I said it was a bit controversial was because I don't think I've ever seen it in any other story, so hell, maybe it's not allowed on fanfiction, in which case well, Rest in Peace.**

 **And if there are any vicious weed haters reading this or whatever, I'm not trying to tell you what to do with your life, I'm not some weed activist either, I just thought it would be a nice thing to have in between Ichigo and Yoruichi. I ain't trying to brainwash you into thinking weed is good or whatever.**

 **And lastly, I know the last couple chapters have been pretty slow, hell, this entire chapter was me basically cock-blocking you guys, so just rest assured the next chapters will pick up the story. Although I do think I included a couple cool scenes, such as when Ichigo scared Ganju shitless, or when he explained his whole combat style.**

 **Thanks for reading.**


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Things never go according to plan, and when they do, you'll probably realise your own plans went against you.

 **Alright, I almost wasn't able to get a chapter out as my weekly schedule said I should because I suffered from writer's block while trying to come up with ideas for it, turns out I ended up confusing my own self with all the shit I could be doing with the plot, what would be coherent with the story, etc... and since I don't note shit down I had to remember it all in my brain, which, now that I think about it, is really stupid. Although once I cleared my thoughts and came up with, what in my mind, is a good base idea for the chapter, and the story in general, ideas started flowing, so here we are! Hopefully this chapter will make sense because I'm still hesitant as to whether or not this is a good direction for the story.**

 **Also, this chapter will probably be very short, although it will be very important.**

 **LEGO!**

"Talking"

'Thinking'

 **"Demon/Hollow talking"**

 **'Demon/Hollow thinking'**

 _"Spirit Talking"_

 _'Spirit thinking'_

 **Disclaimer: Don't own Bleach.**

* * *

 **Chapter 13: Things never go according to plan, and when they do, you'll probably realise your own plans went against you.**

 ** _2 months later..._**

The bell, signifying the end of the class, and the end of the day in this case, rung, taking Ichigo out of his thoughts, which had nothing to do with the lesson.

He was mainly reminiscing, again, about all that had happened, although this time he was looking back on his time since he had been brought to Soul Society.

Ever since the first week, he had kept to a pretty regular schedule, during week-days, he would be at the academy 'studying', after that, he would either go and spend time with the Shibas, whom he had, much to his reluctance, somewhat grown attached too, or he would train with Yoruichi for a couple hours, after which they would do... other activities, until Ichigo went back to the academy. He would spend most of his week-ends with Yoruichi, doing what they had done the first time, much to both of their pleasure. Although there were times when he would go and hang out with his extended family, and for the last month and a half, go and visit the Seireitei. It had only taken a couple weeks for it to be official news that Isshin Shiba had had an affair with a human, and that a child was the product of it, it had gone as Ichigo expected, a lot of people looked down on him for it, although some weren't as stupid, being able to look past it.

People like Ukitake, Shunsui and Unohana were naturally more open and accepted him easily as the son of one their friends, he would often spend an hour or two with them, drinking tea and having surprisingly pleasant conversation, although Shunsui would often insist he drink a bit of sake, which he adamantly refused, he had only seen alcohol do bad things, and besides, it tasted like shit, Unohana was also fine once he looked past her creepy side. He would also train with Sunshui often, which had made him a lot better of a swordsman, he was now able to mix the style he had created himself with an actual style. Speaking of that, Shunsui had been shocked when Ichigo had been easily able to adapt, and almost conquer, his two-sworded style, something almost nobody could do, when the captain had inquired about it, Ichigo had simply refused to answer, saying it would be stupid to give away a secret like that, something Shunsui could respect, he was the same after all. He wasn't able to train with Ukitake, due to his illness, but Ichigo simply enjoyed being around the thirteen division, they were a lot more normal than most of the others, and Rukia was a nice addition to it.

He had also decided to sort out the whole Kaien situation with her, almost lashing out at her when she refused to see the obvious; that she had saved Kaien. It pissed him off, that she would think a situation like that was her fault, and worst, that she thought she had killed Kaien. Although, in the end, he had been able to convince her she had done nothing wrong, and she finally seemed to truly be at peace with it once she talked to the Shibas, who had all forgiven her, and even thanked her for being the one to put their brother, cousin and nephew, to rest, although Ganju had been a bit reluctant at first, a simple slap upside the head from Kukaku, and a punch to the groin from Ichigo, had been enough to convince him.

He had also hung around the 10th division a bit, sparring their officers at first, although after it was made clear he could beat the entire division on his own, he had gone up to spar with the lieutenant, Matsumoto Rangiku, who had put up a lot of protest, although once she actually saw Ichigo, her eyes had gained a glint to him, and she had immediately agreed, something Ichigo still didn't know what to think about. Once he had beat Rangiku, who even when she had released her shikai, didn't stand a chance, he had moved up to Toshiro.

Toshiro had been a good fight, and they were pretty much at equal level when Toshiro released his sword, although Ichigo was still at his base level, using nothing in particular but still keeping up with the young captain. Something that seemed to both alert, and dishearten him, as the next day he had been asked to meet Yamamoto.

His talk with the old man had gone about as well as it could have, even Ichigo, who didn't get intimated easily, had to admit being alone in the same room as Yamamoto was unnerving, although he had evidently done a good job of hiding it, as the commander seemed intrigued at Ichigo's lack of visible panic, something most captains couldn't pull off.

Once he was faced to face with the old captain, he had simply asked two questions; how Ichigo could have possibly gotten the power to stand up to a released captain's sword without releasing his own, the youngest, and arguably weakest, captain, but a captain none the less. To that Ichigo had simply quoted one of the only interesting things he had heard in the academy, "A soul will evolve faster when it is at risk of extinction, in a life or death situation.", **(I can't remember what the actual quote is, and can't find it on the internet, sue me.)** after which Ichigo had explained that he had been in a lot of life or death situations when he was killing hollows in Karakura, making his powers evolve faster, and that his training with some of the captains had helped him, he had also added that he simply might just have a lot of potential.

The second question was whether they would have to worry about him becoming a threat in the future, to which Ichigo had answered that he couldn't prove them that, but that he could tell them he didn't intend on doing so, that he had no reason to go against Soul Society, he had also lied that the simple fact that his only family he had, since his mother, lived in Soul Society was enough for him not to go against it, which at first was a lie, but now Ichigo couldn't be sure.

Those answers seemed to appease Yamamoto's concern, if only for now, and Ichigo had breathed a sigh of relief when he stepped out the doors to his office.

The next time he had seen Toshiro after that, the captain had seemed a bit guilty, apologising for his suspicions, something Ichigo had brushed off, saying it was a normal thing to do.

The rest of the captains Ichigo had mainly ignored, the 2nd division captain because of her relation to Yoruichi, and because she seemed annoying. The 3rd, 5th and 9th because they were the three traitors Ichigo was going to be killing. Rukia's brother, Byakuya, because he seemed annoying as well. The 7th division captain was naturally distant, and Ichigo didn't bother trying. The last two captain, from the 11th and 12th, Ichigo had actively avoided, simply because they were bat-shit crazy, although Ichigo had been tempted to fight the crazed 11th division captain, something he had quickly abandoned when he had asked for Ukitake's advice on the matter, to which he had answered, "Going to Kenpachi Zaraki for a fight is like a lobster climbing into the pot of his own free will." which had effectively answered his question.

That had pretty much been the entirety of his last two months, he still trained with Shiro, and now Ossan, most nights during his sleep, so to say he was extremely powerful now would be an understatement, but aside from that, life had been pretty boring, to Ichigo's standards.

So it was just the perfect time when, as Ichigo was making his way to go train with Yoruichi, he sensed powerful hollows not far away in the Rukongai, looking further into the situation, Ichigo was surprised to find that no shinigami were heading in the direction of the threat and, deciding it wouldn't hurt anybody, he deviated from his normal route, heading into the Rukongai for what he thought would be some easy hollows to kill.

How wrong he was.

* * *

He made it to where he had sensed the hollows quickly, although a strong sense of unease settled over him the second he touched the ground.

First of all, there weren't any hollows, which should be impossible, as Ichigo's senses wouldn't have randomly malfunctioned like that. And second of all, he felt he was being watched, he could feel eyes on him as soon as he landed, putting him on guard.

He looked around cautiously, his hand on Zangetsu's hilt.

"Ahh, Ichigo-kun, I've been wanting to talk to you personally for a while now, what a happy coincidence that we would go looking for the same pack of hollows." he heard the sickly fake voice of Aizen say.

He turned around, his hand still on Zangetsu's hilt, "What do you want, Aizen?" Ichigo said tonelessly, with a cold glare directed at Aizen. He had been expecting Aizen to single him out at some point, however, the fact that the traitor might have a way of knowing he had the Hogyoku in him unnerved him, since it meant that there was something he didn't know, along with the fact that Tousen and Gin could very easily still be hiding, he was on guard, expecting anything.

"It seems any small talk is wasted upon you, Ichigo-kun." Aizen said with fake disappointment, "If you must know, I simply came to talk. To give you an offer, precisely." he continued.

"If you came to ask me to join you, let me answer you now, no." Ichigo replied, to which Aizen shook his head, clicking his tongue.

"Ah, how sad, although I can't say I wasn't expecting it." Aizen said.

It had been too fast for Ichigo to react to, one second, he was confronting Aizen, the other he had a sword piercing his heart, he looked down, shocked, he hadn't felt any spike in reiatsu, he looked behind him, hearing a rustling in the bush, "Gin..." he muttered, coughing up blood, "How?"

"I'm very good at concealing my reiatsu." the snake said, his constant grin plastered on his face, "And my zanpakuto barely requires any reiatsu to release, so I can use it without any being detected. Handy, isn't it?" Gin said, walking casually towards Ichigo, the elongated sword still piercing him, until he was a couple meters away from him.

"Good job, Gin." Aizen said, satisfied.

"Are you gonna kill me now? Cause if you think that's all it's gonna take," Ichigo's eyes went black and yellow, as he released his reaitsu, **"You're sorely mistaken."** he said as he ripped the sword out, although he found his movement restricted immediately after, 'That's not a bakudo! What?' Ichigo thought in a small moment of panic. Although it was all explained when he looked back towards Aizen.

The man's fake smile was gone now, replaced with the smug smirk that truly reflected him, "I'm not going to kill you." Aizen said smugly, "I'm simply going to take the Hogyoku from you, and throw you into Hueco Mundo, powerless, and weak." he said as he lifted his hand towards Ichigo.

 _'Ichigo!'_ he heard Mikasa yell, although her voice was drowned by the unbearable pain that took him over, invading all his senses, he was able to move now, although he simply crumpled to the ground, on his hands and knees, as he suffered, although he stayed silent.

He tried to ignore the pain, mustering himself to look at the source of the pain. His eyes widened as he saw what was causing his agony.

A massive hole, at least the size of a soccer ball, had formed in his chest, he didn't even know how he was alive, at least half of both his lungs were gone by now, along with a good part of his heart.

However that wasn't the only thing that caught his attention, as he saw a small orb fall from the hole in his torso, one he quickly recognised as the Hogyoku.

"Perfect." Aizen said smugly, tossing Ichigo to the side, and picking the orb up. He looked towards the dying teen, his face glowing with satisfaction, "I'm sure you're wondering how I did all this, the answer is pretty simple. After all, being the son of the Soul King has it's perks." Aizen explained.

Ichigo, despite the pain, managed to hear what Aizen was saying, as his face gained a look of shock, "Yes, I'm the son of that _thing..._ I won't bother telling you the story, you'll be dead in a couple minutes anyways." he said, "Tosen, open the garganta." the blind man did as he was told, taking an object and plugging in a couple commands.

The portal opened shortly after that, "Take him to Hueco Mundo, I don't care what you do with him as long as his body can't be found." Aizen said. Tosen nodded, grabbing Ichigo by his shirt, and dragging him into the garganta, that closed shortly after.

"That was ruthless of you, even more than usual, Aizen-Taicho." Gin said, his mirthful tone and smile still in full force.

"Yes, well I guess I let some of my feelings act there, although that doesn't matter." Aizen responded, looking at the orb with an interested look, "My plans can finally start now." he turned towards Gin, "Go tell the Espada they have 4 months to get ready." Gin nodded, disappearing in his own garganta.

"Everything is going exactly as planned." Aizen said to himself, a dark smirk on his face.

* * *

 _ **The next morning...**_

Yoruichi was worried, Ichigo hadn't showed up to training yesterday, normally that wouldn't worry her, he might have gone to do something else, but there were many things wrong with that. He hadn't told her of anything, and she had looked everywhere in the Seireitei, the Shiba clan house and the academy, he wasn't anywhere.

But what worried her the most wasn't the physical evidence, no, it was the gut feeling she had, the uneasy feeling she could only remember having once.

When the incident with the Vizoreds had happened.

She wandered around the Seireitei, in a last ditch attempt to find Ichigo, when she felt the captains congregated near the first division. Deciding she might get some useful information from going there, she headed near the meeting room, listening in.

"Greetings, captains." she heard Yamamoto say, "Is everybody present?" they all nodded, to which Yamamoto slammed his cane on the floor, "Good, the meeting is now started. For our first order of business, Aizen-Taicho, would you please give us a shortened report on yesterday night's hollow incident?"

"Gladly, the hollows were indeed strong, stronger than average, it was a wise choice to send a captain, I doubt anybody other than our strongest lieutenants could have dispatched them, however they weren't much trouble for me. Although," Aizen took a pause, his face gaining a sorrowful look, "I'm afraid I was too late, and somebody perished because of it." some of the captain's eyes widened at the mention of a death.

"Please continue, Aizen-taicho." Yamamoto said.

"Yes. I showed up a second too late, all I saw was the person's face when I arrived, their body having already been eaten by a hollow." Aizen said sadly.

"Who was the victim?" Yamamoto asked, suspecting it would not be some random person, with how much Aizen was trying to avoid saying their name.

"The person was Kurosaki Ichigo." Aizen told them.

All the captain's eyes widened at that, they all knew Ichigo to be extremely powerful, for a group of hollows to be strong enough to kill him was a scary thought.

Yoruichi cat eyes widened at that, 'Aizen...' she hissed angrily in her mind, having to make a conscious effort to keep her reiatsu reeled in.

"Can you confirm it was Kurosaki Ichigo?" Yamamoto asked suspiciously, something was wrong with all this, and he wasn't the only one who thought so.

Aizen nodded gravely, "Yes, it couldn't have been anybody else."

"I see." Yamamoto said, still not fully convinced, "It is sad indeed, he had great potential. Very well, Shunsui, can I ask you to inform the Shiba family of the tragedy?" Shunsui nodded, although he looked like he was in deep thought.

The meeting didn't last long after that, as the captains were shortly dismissed, 'If Aizen has anything to do with this, then Ichigo isn't dead, at least not yet. I need to inform Kisuke about this.' Yoruichi thought, disappearing in shunpo.

* * *

Ukitake walked towards his division quarters with a heavy heart, not only because he was saddened by Ichigo's death, but also because he would have to inform Rukia of it, something words couldn't describe how much he didn't want to do.

He arrived quickly, finding Rukia in her usual training area, she spotted her captain, jogging towards him and greeting him with a bow, "Good morning Ukitake-taicho. I'm sure the captain's meeting well?" she asked, although her expression changed when she saw Ukitake's face, "Is something wrong?"

Ukitake sighed, "I'm afraid so, please follow me to my office." he said.

"What is this about, captain?" Rukia asked tentatively, sitting down as Ukitake took his own seat on his side of the desk.

"It's about Ichigo." Ukitake started, making Rukia's eyes widen.

"What? What happened to him?" she interrupted, before catching herself, "Sorry." she apologised.

"It's fine." Ukitake said off-handedly, "As to what happened to him. He's... dead." Ukitake said sadly.

Rukia's eyes widened even more, "I'm sorry captain, I must have heard you wrong, did you say Ichigo was dead?" she repeated, not believing it.

"No, you heard me right." Ukitake confirmed, feeling a pang in his heart when Rukia gasped, bringing a head to her mouth, tears welling up in her eyes, "He was killed by a small pack of abnormally strong hollows yesterday night."

"No..." Rukia said softly, tears freely falling.

"I'm sorry." was all Ukitake could say as Rukia broke down, crying. He made his way across the desk, taking Rukia in a comforting embrace, that she gladly took.

'I can only hope Aizen saw the wrong person, Ichigo.' Ukitake thought as the girl continued to cry at yet the loss of another person she loved.

* * *

Meanwhile, Shunsui was on his way to tell another group of people about Ichigo's death, although his mind was thinking differently.

While he was sad about Ichigo's supposed death, he couldn't help but feel suspicious about Aizen's story, there were so many things that were off about it, too many conveniences, his instincts were raging at him, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

He arrived in front of the clan house, "Hello, Kyoraku-taicho, to what do we owe the honour?" a butler asked.

"I'm afraid I come with bad news, would you please gather everybody who is present?" Shunsui said, to which the butler nodded, going into the house, Shunsui following him.

"Please wait here, while I go get Shiba-sama." the butler said, leaving and shortly reappearing with the six Shiba. The butler bowed quickly, leaving after.

"What are you here for, Kyoraku-taicho?" Isshin asked in a laid-back tone.

"Nothing good, Isshin." he said gravely, making Isshin frown.

"What's wrong?" the man asked.

"Yesterday night there were several abnormally strong hollows detected in the rukongai, Aizen was sent to kill them, when he appeared on the scene he saw Ichigo, dead, being eaten by a hollow." Shunsui explained, his usual jovial tone gone and replaced with a serious, sad, exterior.

The six widened their eyes, "Are they sure it was Ichigo?" Isshin asked.

"Yes, Aizen confirmed it. I'm sorry." Shunsui told him. By now, Yuzu was openly crying, with Karin trying her hardest not to, although tears were seconds away from falling.

Isshin looked down, not having anything to say. Shunsui, deciding this was a private moment, made for the exit, "I would like to talk to you after this, Isshin and Kukaku." he said before leaving.

He waited outside for a good ten minutes, although he didn't get impatient, he understood Isshin would prioritise comforting his daughters, as any good father would.

"What did you want to talk about, Kyoraku?" Isshin asked as he and Kukaku walked out, Isshin's white clothes stained with the tears of his daughters.

"I wanted to share some of my suspicions with you about all this." he replied, making both the Shibas raise an eyebrow, "There's something that seems off to me about Aizen's story, and I feel we should look into it." he said.

"We're listening."

* * *

 ** _Hueco Mundo... After Tosen left in the garganta..._**

Tosen stepped out of the garganta, the unconscious, and dying, Ichigo still held up by his shirt, being dragged across the sands of Hueco Mundo.

The blind man tossed the teen mercilessly, as he slid a couple feet before coming to a stop, and turned around, opening a garganta and stepping through it, leaving Ichigo alone.

* * *

 **Ooooooohhh shit! Shit's going down again!**

 **Ain't got shit to say so...**

 **Thanks for reading.**


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14: Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.

 **Alright, all I have for you guys right now is some answers to a couple reviews, so here goes:**

 **naruto(guest): Ichigo isn't the master of the Hogyoku just yet, as he hasn't really bothered claiming it's power, since he doesn't really care about that, seeing as that he hasn't really needed any power boost. And even if he had, Aizen being the son of the Soul King gives him special control over the Hogyoku, hence with he was able to take it from Ichigo.**

 **Omni-creator Kami of Anime: I'm under the impression that Aizen was immortal because he wished to be, not because he was exposed to the Hogyoku for a long time, so that's what I'm working with, also, if that was the case, Rukia would be immortal too. Also, Ichigo wouldn't wish to be immortal, the prospect of being a god scares him more than anything else. And for your lat question, he probably will have some _special_ relationships with Rangiku and Mikasa.**

 **Alright, this guy just posted all his reviews in one sitting, so I'll answer them all here:**

 **Guest (Chapter 2): No, Ichigo is not a self insert, I don't really know about having no personality flaws, I would think not caring about most people who are close to you would be one, but I do recognise I didn't do a great job of portraying that. Ichigo does blame Yhwach for killing his mother, as in he understands it is his fault that his mother died, but he doesn't hold any resentment towards him, with reasoning being given in the chapter. That doesn't mean he likes Yhwach, but he isn't hell-bent on killing him, vengeance isn't worth it in his eyes.**

 **Guest (Chapter 4): Hey! I'll have you know I'm a proud respecter of women! And I don't describe all of them like that. Orihime, Tatsuki, Rukia, and basically every other women aside from Rangiku, Mikasa and Yoruichi are perfectly normal. Don't you ever dare say I don't respect woman again. Grrrr.**

 **Guest (Chapter 5): Uuuhhhh... I'll be honest and say I don't have a fucking clue what you were trying to tell me, aside from the fact that you don't want me to simply throw other characters, like Orihime, to the side. So I'll focus on that I guess, no, I'll try not to do what Kubo did and simply discard powers like that of Orihime's, but I've said it before that this fic is gonna be more Ichigo-centric than anything, so I'm not promising shit.**

 **Guest (Chapter 7): I 'ruined' the moment between Orihime and her brother because it wouldn't have made sense for Ichigo to simply let it happen. In Ichigo's eyes Sora was simply going to kill Orihime, and even if that wasn't the case, at that moment he couldn't have cared less whether they their 'moment' or not, so he simply killed Sora. It would have gone against Ichigo's character to sit back and let Sora maul Orihime.**

 **Guest (Chapter 8): Character development so he can learn to love himself? I'll be honest and say I don't think that's gonna happen for a while, hell, it might never happen, at least not until the end. Half of Ichigo's character is based on self-loathing anyways.**

 **Also, thank you for the good grammar, even though there were a lot of spelling mistakes, it didn't hurt to read.**

 **And last but not least, what in my opinion was the best review last chapter, it was so brilliant I can remember it word for word, or maybe it's because it's only four words, 'This was absolute shit', great review! Appreciate it. Also, thank you so much for breaking the no-flame streak I was on, feelsgoodman.**

 **Anyways, without further ado,**

 **LEGO!**

"Talking"

'Thinking'

 **"Demon/Hollow talking"**

 **'Demon/Hollow thinking'**

 _"Spirit Talking"_

 _'Spirit thinking'_

 **Disclaimer: Don't own Bleach.**

* * *

 **Chapter 14: Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.**

Pain.

Ichigo didn't think he could feel pain in an unconscious state, but then again, he did feel pretty conscious at the moment.

Floating, he knew he wasn't moving, but it felt real, slowly sinking, small sounds of suffering, his own suffering, echoing in his ears.

He forced himself to open his eyes, it was like forcing yourself to open your eyes when you were in a bath of acid, it went against all his natural instincts, but he did it.

And all he saw was white.

A surprisingly pure white, given that this was obviously a part of his soul, he didn't think it could be represented in such a pure way.

He looked around, seeing nothing but the same thing. He couldn't feel his body, right now it felt like he was just a pair of eyes, looking around.

It also felt like he was slowly being torn apart by a meat grinder.

He knew what had happened, why he was here, why he was in such pain. Yes, having a hole the size of a soccer ball in his chest was definitely one of the reasons.

But the loss of the Hogyoku was the main one.

The hole could be healed easily with a bit of high-speed regeneration, as a matter of fact, he had no doubt that his body was completely healed at the moment, physically, at least.

But the sudden disappearance of what, over the past couple months, had asserted itself as part of his soul, wasn't as easy to heal.

He knew the solution though. As much as his soul had indeed bonded with the Hogyoku over the past 2 or so months, it hadn't fully combined itself with him, otherwise Aizen wouldn't have been able to rip it out of him, no matter how much being the son of Soul King gave him reign over the small orb.

And say he had been able to rip it out of him, there was no question about it, Ichigo would be dead.

But evidently, that wasn't the case. Ichigo could only guess, but the area he was in right now was probably the part of his soul the Hogyoku had inhabited before it had been torn out of him.

The reason why he was in such pain was because a part of his soul was empty, and there was only one way to remedy that, fill it back up.

He guessed that Shiro and Ossan had been occupying this area before Mikasa had barged in, so it was only right to give them their space back.

He watched as, slowly, what was before an empty, pure part of his soul, became tainted with Shiro and Ossan's presence. The area was now a mix of colors, black, red, blue, grey, all colors that represented him and his spirits.

While that was going on, he also felt his body coming back, whereas before he simply felt like he was just a pair of eyes, now he was back to normal, he had all his limbs, his chest, his head.

And he was back in his inner world.

 **"Pheeewww. That was kinda close, wasn't it king?"** Shiro said, coming into Ichigo's view, Ossan at his side.

'Not particularly.' Ichigo said in a bored tone, 'We all knew I would be fine in the end, but that isn't the problem. The problem is that Aizen has the Hogyoku, and that I'm pretty sure we're not in Soul Society anymore.' he didn't really think Aizen being the son of the Soul King was particularly important, at least not right now.

 _"Indeed, from what I can feel, this area is tainted by hollow reiatsu, we aren't anywhere near Soul Society, or the living world."_ Ossan said, his voice serious.

'Hueco Mundo.' Ichigo recalled another one of the small amount of things that had caught his interest at the academy, 'The world of the hollows, Aizen must have thought we would die here. Sadistic fucker.' he muttered, rubbing his sore neck.

 **"Yeah."** Shiro said bitterly, angry that they had lost, even one battle, against Aizen. Although his attention was taken back outside as he felt something approaching them, **"And he's gonna be right real soon if you don't wake yourself up!"** he exclaimed, **"There's a hollow out there, and I'm pretty sure it's looking for you."**

Ichigo grunted, annoyed at the interruption, before he disappeared, forcing his body to wake up.

He was surprised at how normal he felt, after being effectively killed, then dragged all the way to Hueco Mundo, he thought he would feel like shit, at least be tired.

But it couldn't be closer to the opposite, every breath he took reinvigorated him, pumped him with energy, made his instincts sharper, every breath he took made his hollow side feel alive, and his other sides fade away.

 **"It's the air."** Shiro said, seemingly randomly, **"The air in Hueco Mundo is filled with hollow reiatsu, making your hollow senses perk up. I'm pretty sure you'd be at your most powerful if you went into your hollow form here."** he explained.

'And how am I supposed to do that?' Ichigo asked, 'And will I still maintain my consciousness?'

 **"It's not that hard, just focus on your hollow side, I can do the rest. And you'll remain conscious, your hollow powers will simply be in front, basically a reverse of what you are now. Normally you're a shinigami with hollow powers. Now you'll be a hollow with shinigami powers."** he told him.

Ichigo internally nodded, focusing on his inner hollow, on the air he was breathing.

He felt his body change, his features morph, his instincts becoming stronger and stronger, it all felt natural as well, he doubted that it would if he wasn't at peace with what he was.

His transformation finally stopped, and he stood up. Rising a bit higher than he usually did.

He felt so _powerful._ Whereas before, every breath he took made him feel like a bit more alive, now, every breath he took felt like a snort of cocaine.

It was _incredible._

He reached out with his senses, finding where the hollow that Shiro had alerted him to was, and, instantly, he was gone.

He moved faster than he ever had before, making it to the poor creature in the blink of an eye, and killing it instantly.

It wasn't even a challenge, the hollow never knew what happened to it, before it was disappearing in shower of spirit particles.

Ichigo was relieved, happy that he wasn't feeling inclined to eat the dead beast. But he still wasn't satisfied, that wasn't nearly enough to satisfy him.

And so for what felt like a couple days, although in truth it was probably only an hour or two, he ran across the deserted plains of Hueco Mundo, killing everything and anything he saw.

It wasn't a mindless killing spree, it wasn't a call for attention, it wasn't Ichigo trying to claim his power as a hollow, it was Ichigo having _fun._

The rush he felt each time he killed a hollow was addictive, satisfying, but all the while, Ichigo remained conscious, he would normally be panicked by behavior like this, scared that he was going insane.

But his thought process was perfectly rational.

He knew he wouldn't do something like this to a normal human soul, hell, if one of those hollows appeared to be what Urahara had described as an arrancar, a conscious hollow with it's mask ripped off. Ichigo wouldn't kill it unless it tried to kill him.

He was simply having fun.

He knew he wasn't actually killing the hollows anyways, he was simply cleansing them and sending back to the Soul Society.

He stopped after what was probably a couple hours, not because he was tired, but he had realized long ago he would never be satisfied by the weak hollows in the area.

He turned his head around, feeling a strong hollow coming towards him, a _very_ strong hollow.

He grinned, what he was sure was a terrifying grin in his hollow form, standing up from his sitting position in the sand, and waited.

He knew the hollow was coming for him, surely it had sensed the massive reiatsu, and had come for a fight.

He was surprised however, when the hollow appeared in front of him, calm and poised, looking at Ichigo in a calculating manner.

"Aren't you here to fight me, hollow?" Ichigo asked.

Ulquiorra blinked, surprised that the hollow was able of speech, even though it had a mouth, he wasn't expecting it to be used, "No, a strong reiatsu was sensed, so I was sent to assess if it was a threat or not. And possibly recruit it."

"A threat? That depends, who are you?" Ichigo asked.

"My name is Ulquiorra Cifer, Espada in Aizen-sama's army." Ulquiorra said calmly, "You now have two options before you, hollow. You can either come back with me to Las Noches, and become a member of Aizen-sama's army, or you can decide to refuse."

'Aizen has an army of arrancar in Hueco Mundo? That's good to know.' Ichigo thought, "I feel like I can't just simply refuse, what would happen if I did decide to say no?" Ichigo asked.

Ulquiorra's expression didn't change, although it was obvious he getting annoyed of the conversation, "If you refuse," he started, reaching for his sword, Ichigo doing the same, "I will have to eliminate you. So, what is your choice?"

"I think I'll have to refuse." he said with a smirk, unsheathing his sword, shocking Ulquiorra.

"How do you already have a sword? Are you an arr-" he was cut off as Ichigo flashed towards him almost faster than his eyes could follow, striking down at him.

Ulquiorra barely had time to react as he brought his own sword up, although he was caught by surprise at the strength behind the blow, being forced to use both his hands to block, "I thought you were going to eliminate me? What does it matter if I'm an arrancar or not?" Ichigo asked, going for a kick with his left leg.

Ulquiorra jumped back, careful to approach the fight carefully this time, he knew he would have to release in order to stand a chance against the hollow, however he abstained himself, "What is your name, hollow?" he asked.

"None of your business." Ichigo said, standing still, waiting for Ulquiorra to charge, "Aren't you going to attack me?" he had already gotten a decent glimpse at Ulquiorra's fighting style from their one bout, but he could use as much information as he could get. However it was easy to tell Ulquiorra didn't seem like the type to engage in a fight, especially not when he knew he was outmatched, so after a couple seconds, Ichigo decided he would start. He could use as much information on Aizen's army as possible.

He flashed behind Ulquiorra, slashing at his neck, a move that would reveal the most twitches in muscle memory, after all, the areas you protected the most were the ones you had the most ways to protect.

The fight continued for a small bit of time, with Ulquiorra visibly being overpowered by the hollow whom he still couldn't get the name of, "Come on, I know you're not that weak, if you are, I'll just kill you." Ichigo stated in a bored tone. Truthfully, his want for a good fight had gone away when he had stopped fighting the low level hollows and settled down, right now, he was just trying to get the most information he could on these arrancar, he might even be able to get Ulquiorra's ranking in the army, which would prove helpful.

Ulquiorra knew he would have to release at some point to survive, he had simply been trying to find a flaw in the hollow's fighting he could exploit as soon as he released, so that he could end the fight quickly. However, he hadn't found any. It was unbelievable, that a hollow would have such a perfected defense, but he resigned to the fact he would have to release, and, bringing his sword up, he said, "You want to see my release? Fine. Enclose, Murcielago.".

His body lit up, a pillar or dark light that seemed to reach to the moon of Hueco Mundo forming around him.

Ichigo watched as Ulquiorra unleashed his true potential. It was truly suffocating, for a lesser being, they would probably die from the reiatsu alone, and if they didn't, the rain of acid would surely finish them off. But Ichigo wasn't a lesser being, and all he had to do was strengthen his hierro a bit to not get harmed by the rain.

"Impressive." Ichigo said simply as the energy dissipated, revealing Ulquiorra in his released state, "However, I can tell that isn't your final form." Ulquiorra widened his eyes, how could he know? "But I'll let you off the hook, all I wanted to see was your released state. Tell me, what is your ranking in Aizen's army?" Ichigo asked.

"I don't see why I would reveal that information to you. Luz de la Luna." he said in his normal emotionless tone as a green javelin appeared in his hand.

He flashed towards Ichigo, surprising the hybrid with how speed the arrancar had gained, and thrust the javelin into Ichigo's chest, aiming to finish him off quickly, but was truly shocked when Ichigo simply brought his hand up, catching the javelin in his hand.

The sound of Ulquiorra's attack hitting against Ichigo's hand made a horrible noise, almost like somebody running their nails against a chalkboard.

Ulquiorra looked at Ichigo with wide eyes, not able to comprehend how a simple hollow could have done that, evidently, his shock proved to be his downfall, as he was punched in the jaw, being thrown across the plain and landing several hundred meters away from Ichigo.

Ichigo sonidoed to Ulquiorra, standing before his downed form, "It doesn't matter how powerful your attack is, if my reiatsu is more powerful than yours, I can stop it, that's simply how it works, so unless you have anything else to show me, you've lost." he said, his tone emotionless, staring straight at Ulquiorra.

Ulquiorra stared right back, feeling like he was but an adjudas again, staring into the eyes of the hollow that would eat him, the stronger hollow. He knew he could use his second release, but he also knew it would be pointless, if the hollow could overpower him so simply in his first release, he wouldn't be able to do much in second one. It was like he had said, all that mattered in the end was who's reiatsu was stronger, "What are you waiting for? Kill me. I've lost, and in Hueco Mundo, whoever loses, dies." he looked back down, closing his eyes.

"Why do you follow Aizen?" Ulquiorra looked back towards the hollow, blinking, "There must be reason why you are siding with him, do you agree with his ideals? Did he prove his strength over you?" the creature asked, it's tone still not revealing anything, although it was clear he was interested.

"I don't know why I follow him." Ulquiorra said simply, "It's what my instincts tell me to do. As a hollow, I follow my instincts."

Ichigo raised his reiatsu as black flames started to seep out of him, licking at him, dancing around his mask. He wasn't trying to make his reiatsu feel heavy, he was making it feel commanding, powerful, "And what are your instincts telling you to do now?"

Ulquiorra looked back up at the hollow, truly, he was the image of power at the moment. For all his time around Aizen, his power had always felt forced, suffocating, not like a leader, but like a dictator. The hollow however, he felt like a true King, his power simply inspired respect, admiration, not fear, "They're telling me to follow you." Ulquiorra said.

"I see." Ichigo replied. Truthfully, he didn't want to do this, but this would undoubtedly help him in long run, if only because he could have a contact in Aizen's army. He also didn't simply want to kill everybody who was considered the 'bad guys', he knew that was a flawed concept, even if the members of Aizen's army were hollows, they were conscious beings, capable of human thoughts, and human emotion, to Ichigo, that qualified as a human. "And are you going to do what they tell you to do?" he asked.

Ulquiorra stood up, "Yes." he said, bowing low.

"Don't bow."Ichigo told him quickly. "Tell me, why would you choose me over Aizen?" he questioned.

"You're different from Aizen, he is a self-proclaimed king, for all my time with him, I always felt forced to obey him. With you however, it's natural, you inspire respect and admiration, yet you don't inspire fear, for us hollows, we long for a King that can rid us of any fear, and you are that King." Ulquiorra told him.

Ichigo couldn't say he liked that, but he accepted it as an explanation. He turned around, wondering what he should do now, "How high were you in the rankings, Ulquiorra?" he asked.

"I was the cuatro espada, meaning there are three people above me in the army." he said.

"Does that count your second release?" he inquired.

"No, but how did you know about it?" he questioned, intrigued.

"I could sense it." Ichigo explained simply, "Where would you place yourself then?"

"I would say I overpower the second espada in brute force while in my second release, however, due to his powers I would still lose against him, the first espada is fully above me however." Ulquiorra told him.

'Aizen really didn't slack with his army, if he has 3 people above Ulquiorra, then Soul Society really is in for some trouble.' Ichigo thought grimly, 'But that's what I'm here for.' he continued, smirking internally, "Do you think any of the Espada would be willing to leave Aizen?" he asked.

"The first and third Espada are extremely loyal to Aizen, however I believe their loyalties could be swayed by you. The second Espada would be a problem, even if you could gain his favor, I would suggest getting rid of him, he is too power hungry. The fifth, sixth, ninth and tenth Espada are mindless idiots, weak, I'm sure they would leave Aizen in the blink of an eye, but they would be an embarrassment to you, so I would suggest leaving them alone, as they are not a particular threat to you. The eight Espada is weak, but his purpose is as a scientist, so he might prove useful to you. The seventh Espada is also loyal to Aizen, however I don't think he would be swayed as easily, it wouldn't be worth it either, as he is a lot weaker than the first and third Espada." Ulquiorra listed off.

"I see." Ichigo couldn't alert Aizen that he was still alive, and he couldn't simply stop him too early, he had to wait until he revealed himself to Soul Society, "What are Aizen's plans for the future?"

"Gin came to Las Noches today, he told us the war with Soul Society would start in 4 months." he replied.

Ichigo nodded, trying to figure out what the best course of action was.

He had to wait for Aizen to reveal himself to Soul Society, all the while he had to lay low, so that Aizen wouldn't realise he was still alive. Then there was the problem of Urahara, he didn't know what the man would do once Yoruichi told him he had 'died', and he didn't want to enter Karakura town, Aizen obviously kept a tight watch on the city, and would know if he entered it. The best course of action was to let things go naturally until Aizen decided to attack Soul Society, during that time he would try and turn some of the Espada, namely the first and third, to his side, it would give him more firepower, since he didn't know how powerful Aizen would get with the Hogyoku now in his possession, and it would rid Aizen's army of 2 more of it's most powerful solders. He might try and find a way to get in contact with Urahara in the future, but that wasn't his main problem at the moment, what he had to do was find a way to get the first and third Espada on his side.

"Go back to Las Noches and say the hollow you encountered was stronger than you had expected, and that you require back up. I trust you to find a way to get the first and third Espada to come here." Ichigo told him.

Ulquiorra nodded, "Will you still be here?" he asked.

"Yes, I'll be waiting, not like there's much else for me to do." Ichigo replied.

He felt Ulquiorra disappear in a burst of Sonido and sighed, wondering how the hell it had gotten to this point.

He didn't reflect on those thoughts however, as he started to think of a way he could get the unknown Espada to leave Aizen.

He hoped he wouldn't have to fight them, but realistically, in Hueco Mundo, all was decided by a fight, so he knew he would have to prove his strength.

He was somewhat looking forward to it, if the arrancar were stronger than Ulquiorra by one and three ranks the fight would prove fun, but at the same time he understood he wouldn't be able to have fun with the fight, the arrancar would kill him quickly if he proved to be weak, so he would have to prove his dominance.

He walked along the plains of Hueco Mundo, even though he had told Ulquiorra he wouldn't move much, he knew the arrancar would be able to find him, after all, he was just walking.

It was oddly relaxing, he might have been in the world of the hollows, what many people would consider hell, but to him, it was pleasant, it set his mind at ease.

The empty, silent desert, illuminated by the moon, the only star in the perpetual night sky.

The empty, yet somewhat full feeling being in his hollow form made gave him.

It all made him question why he was doing this.

He could easily stay like this, walking the plains of Hueco Mundo forever, his own thoughts keeping him company, it would be much easier than all he was doing right now, he didn't even know why he was fighting this battle, sure, it was fun at times, but he often times found himself questioning whether it was worth it or not. He could as easily get a good fight by going to Las Noches and challenging the arrancar there, as stupid and suicidal as it would be.

He shook his head, dissipating the thoughts. There was no point in questioning his actions, he would do it because he wanted to, there didn't need to be any deeper motives, existential questions about life involved.

All the motivations he needed to do something was want, and that was a perfectly good justification. There was no need for him to give himself headaches thinking about philosophical reasonings behind everything he was doing. He had a want, and he would satisfy that want.

That was all he needed.

* * *

 ***Sees something out of the corner of his eye* Oh, I didn't see you there.**

 **What a surprise, Ichigo isn't dead. Who could have predicted that?**

 **Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, I ain't got shit to say so,**

 **Thanks for reading.**


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Chapter_name

 **Alright, first things first, sorry for how late this chapter is, blame it on the fact that my teachers apparently think they have the right (which they might have) to give me 3 essays and 4 tests within one week, and also on my addiction to Overwatch.**

 **Although I am on vacation for 2 weeks now, so I'll hopefully be able to pump some chapters out.**

 **And finally, a couple reviews to answer:**

 **bloody dragon fang: I might do that, but I need to find a good way to introduce them, so it doesn't feel forced, I also want it to be good characters, somewhat original and all. It would be pointless and bad for the story if I simply introduced two new characters for the sake of it, especially when there are already so many characters to manage.**

 **Sinnerlust: Very good question. I don't know why I'm replying to this review, since I don't know the answer, but that is a good question. Tite, explain please.**

 **Frosten: No, I don't even know how I could make that happen, since Ichigo is going to be staying in Hueco Mundo from now on. Also, I'm not doing the filler arcs, hell, I didn't even watch them.**

 **Alright, that's all for the reviews, so without further ado,**

 **LEGO!**

"Talking"

'Thinking'

 **"Demon/Hollow talking"**

 **'Demon/Hollow thinking'**

 _"Spirit Talking"_

 _'Spirit thinking'_

 **Disclaimer: Don't own Bleach.**

* * *

 **Chapter 15: Chapter_name**

Yoruichi walked through the Garaganta into the underground layer in the human world, greeted by Kisuke.

He jumped towards her, picking her cat form up and hugging it, "It's been so long! How are you doing? Are you visiting me because you missed me? I'd say I missed you too, but that would be a lie. Ow, why did you hit me?" he questioned, holding his head as Yoruichi jumped out of his arms.

"I'm definitely not visiting because I missed you. I have some important info, get Ichigo's friends as well, it concerns them." she said seriously.

"Oh?" he replied, his tone going somewhat serious, "Alright then, wait just one second." he disappeared, reappearing quickly with his four trainees, "You're lucky Ishida-san is here too, normally he trains all on his lonesome, so edgy." he whispered to her in a mock attempt at being discrete.

Ishida snarled, "I can hear you. What are you here for, Yoruichi?" he asked.

"I'm here because, according to Aizen, Ichigo is dead." she said, emphasising on the fact that the information was coming from Aizen.

Orihime and Tatsuki gasped, and would have spoken had Kisuke not done so first, "I'm guessing you don't believe he's dead?" he questioned, eyes narrowed.

"No, Ichigo did disappear, but I severely doubt he died, I would have been able to sense the fight. I do think Aizen did something though." she replied.

"Aizen might have made some type of attempt on Ichigo, that was to be expected though. So, either Ichigo is indeed dead, or he went and hid." Urahara guessed.

Yoruichi nodded, "Or he was captured by Aizen."

"Or that, but that was included in the 'Ichigo is dead' option." Kisuke replied.

Yoruichi shrugged, "Fair enough. So, what do we do now?"

Kisuke seemed to think for a couple seconds, before coming to a conclusion, "If Ichigo did hide, we have no way of knowing where, I suggest we go with the option that he will show himself when Aizen reveals himself as well. So we keep to the plan we had before, although now, we'll bring a bit more firepower." he explained.

"Are you going to try to bring the visoreds into this too?" she asked.

"Yep, we're all going on a trip to Soul Society soon!" he exclaimed in a joyous tone.

Yoruichi sighed at the man's antics, "Alright, I guess I'll be back off to Soul Society then, I'll tell you when things start happening." she said, leaving through the portal that had stayed open.

Urahara turned back towards the group of teens that had stayed silent, "Ok, you guys keep training, I'm guessing you got most of that?" they nodded, "Good, I'm gonna go have a conversation with some old friends." he continued, disappearing in a blur of speed.

He reappeared in front of the old warehouse where he knew the visoreds were hiding, "This is gonna be annoying." Urahara sighed, already knowing he would have to take the conversation more seriously, "Open up! It's just me!" he yelled and, after a couple seconds, walked through the opening in the barrier.

"What are you here for, Kisuke?" Shinji asked from his position, lying down on the couch.

"Are those really the first words you would say to a friend you haven't seen in a hundred years? I'm so hurt!" he explained, holding his heart in mock sadness.

"Shut up, baka! Why are you here? We don't want to see your stupid face!" Hiyori yelled, jumping towards him, sandal of mass destruction at the ready.

"Not now, midget." Kisuke said calmly, grabbing her hand before she could strike, although that only seemed to anger her more, as she took her sandal in her other hand and prepared to strike, Urahara sighed internally, it was impossible to deal with her, "I warned you." he whispered, twisting his arm and throwing her into the wall.

She landed with a crash, putting a dent in the wall.

Shinji looked on calmly, "Huh, if you're not willing to take Hiyori's bullshit this must be serious. Is this about Aizen?" he asked.

The mood of the visoreds immediately sobered up at the mention of the man, "Yes, it's finally happening." Kisuke said, "Aizen made a move. Yoruichi's in Soul Society and is going to tell us when he makes another one. I'm here to tell you to be ready when the time comes, you might have to go back to Soul Society."

Kensei snarled, having paused his training when Kisuke walked in, "You're seriously asking us to go back there?!" he exclaimed.

Kisuke's eyes narrowed, "I'm not asking you, I'm telling you." he raised his reiatsu a bit, "You're going to have to go back to Soul Society, wether you like it or not. I don't care what petty feud you still have with them, Aizen is bigger than it. Besides, we're not just going to stand back now. After we defeat Aizen they'll be willing to listen to us." Kisuke said, turning around, "I'll let you debate it within yourselves. I just need you guys ready for when Aizen makes his move." he finished, disappearing, and leaving a group of very annoyed visoreds.

* * *

 ** _Soul Society... with Yoruichi..._**

Yoruichi landed on the roof of one of the eight division buildings, looking around, without a particular goal in mind, "Aahhh, I knew I would find something here. How are you, Yoruichi-san?" her eyes widened as she heard a voice speak behind her, one hundred years of not being in Soul Society had made her forget the different faces associated with each voice, so it could very well be Aizen behind her for all she knew.

She turned around slowly, almost breathing a sigh of relief when she saw Kyoraku, captain of the eight division, although this still wasn't good, "How did you know I would be here?" she questioned.

Kyoraku shrugged, "I didn't. It's just that things have been off recently, don't you think? What with the sudden appearance, then disappearance, of Ichigo Kurosaki. And Aizen, he's been pretty suspicious, I don't know, it all feels very ambiguous." he told her calmly.

Yoruichi smirked, she knew Kyoraku was probably one of the most perceptive captains, it was no surprise he had sensed something was off, "What do you want to know?" she asked.

"Everything, the more I think of this, the more I realise something has been off. Ever since the hollowfication incident with the captains, that you were also involved in. There's something going on, isn't there?" he questioned.

Yoruichi sighed, "Yes, there is. Although this might sound pretty unbelievable." she warned.

"Hit me with your best shot." Kyoraku replied with a smirk.

* * *

"That is pretty unbelievable..." Kyoraku muttered, rubbing his chin in thought, "Doesn't mean I don't believe you though."

"Why?" Yoruichi questioned. She honestly could barely believe herself as she recounted Aizen's deeds, along with Ichigo's story.

Kyoraku shrugged, "It answers a lot of questions I've had, and besides, I've always felt something off with Aizen. That confirms it. The whole story adds up, on top of that, Isshin had already told me that Ichigo's mother was a quincy, and that she had saved him." he explained, to which Yoruichi frowned.

"Why would he tell you that?" she asked.

Kyoraku rubbed that back of his head sheepishly, smirking, "I might have told him about my suspicions, we didn't get very far though, I'll have to tell him about this."

"I see. Well, can I presume I have a contact in Soul Society now?"

Kyoraku nodded, "Follow me, we'll talk about this with Isshin, he'll be able to help you infiltrate Soul Society when Aizen starts his plans."

* * *

"Huh, you have really good intuition, Kyoraku." Isshin muttered, rubbing his chin.

Yoruichi sweatdropped at the similar reaction the two had had, "Does that mean you believe me?"

Isshin shrugged, to which Yoruichi sweatdropped got larger, "Yeah, I mean, why not?"

"Why not?" she said incredulously, "You know what, I'm not gonna question it..." she muttered, "So, can you help us when Aizen makes his move?" she asked.

"Sure. We can help you get inside of Soul Society, although I doubt you'll need that much help, it's gonna be a pretty big shitshow." Isshin said, to which it was Yoruichi's turn to shrug.

"Maybe, but having extra allies never hurts." she replied, turning around, "Well, that was fun and all, but I think it's time I take my leave." she told them, after which she left in a blur of shunpo.

Isshin turned to Kukaku and Kyoraku, "Want a drink?" he asked, to which they nodded immediately.

* * *

 ** _Hueco Mundo... with Ichigo..._**

Ichigo looked at his wrist, as if looking at an imaginary watch, 'Ulquiorra's taking his sweet ass time...' he thought, 'Oh, there he is.' he corrected himself as he felt the presence of Ulquiorra, along with 2 other hollows, that felt especially strong, coming towards him.

Ulquiorra landed shortly after, 2 other arrancar behind him, one of them was a man, that looked particularly bored, the other was a woman, that didn't look as much bored as she did impassive, oh and also, 'Even in Hueco Mundo, it's only 11/10s...' Ichigo muttered in his thoughts, "Took your time, Ulquiorra." Ichio said.

Ulquiorra looked at him with a perplexed face, "Is that you?" he asked.

"Yeah, why wouldn't it be... oh." Ichigo realised why the fourth espada was confused, "Yeah, turns out that form I was in yesterday was my ressureccion. I didn't even realise." he said sheepishly, "Are those the two Espada?" he questioned, to which Ulquiorra nodded.

"What is this?" the woman spoke, "Is this the hollow, arrancar apparently, that beat you?" she asked, "And if so, why are you speaking to him so familiarly?"

Ulquiorra didn't speak, simply walking behind the two Espada, "You don't need to speak to him." Ichigo stated, raising his reiatsu, "The only person you need to worry about is me." he continued, disappearing in a blur of sonido that the woman could barely follow, and striking down.

She was saved the life-threatening injury by the man, who had brought his sword up, seemingly without much effort, "Stay focused, Harribel." he said tonelessly.

The now named Harribel jumped away, the man following after her, "Sorry, Stark." she replied.

"Harribel and Stark huh?" Ichigo repeated, "What about the other one that's hiding over there?" he pointed in the direction that the 3 had arrived from.

Stark's eyes widened, 'How did he sense her?', "Just a sidekick, she insisted on coming." he said quickly, to which one of Ichigo's eyebrows rose.

'He replied fast, he must be worried about her for some reason or another. Whatever, at least I know she isn't a threat if he's scared for her.' Ichigo thought, shrugging externally as a response, and disappearing again.

This time though, Harribel was able to keep up with him, albeit with a bit of effort, as she brought her sword up, although she was still blown back by the strength. Ichigo turned towards Stark, aiming for a blow on his right side, which he was able to block, matching the strength as well. Ichigo smirked as they clashed, "I'm guessing you're the primera then?" he said, disengaging.

Stark frowned, 'How would he know about that?' he thought, although he was cut off from that as he sensed Harribel's reiatsu raise, 'Smart move, she can't do anything against an opponent of his level if she doesn't release.'

"Destroy, Tiburon." she said, bringing her sword up as a massive explosion of reiatsu enveloped her form.

The reiatsu settled down, revealing Harribel, who hadn't changed much aside from basically throwing away half her clothes, and changing the shape of her sword, 'You know, I'm starting to think whoever did these character designs is a perv...' Ichigo muttered in his thoughts.

She brought her sword up, condensing energy in it, and swinging it down, "La Gota." she said as a massive water bullet flew towards Ichigo, who didn't even seem phased by it, not bothering to move as it hit him.

He spit the water out of his mouth, "Thanks for that, I needed a bath." he said with a smirk.

Her expression turned sour at that, as she charged at him, "Trident." she whispered, firing three consecutive shots at him.

Ichigo still looked non-plussed at the sight of the attacks, although he did raise his reiryoku, bringing his sword up to deflect the attacks as well, although he wasn't off the hook, as Stark charged him, bringing his sword down.

Ichigo blocked it easily, this time overpowering Stark as he slashed at his shoulder, piercing his hierro, "That all you got? Disappointing for the Third and Primera Espada."

Stark cursed, jumping away from his enemy and landing next to Harribel, "We can't beat him by attacking individually." Stark said. Harribel nodded, charging up an attack, Stark doing the same.

"Trident."

"Cero."

Ichigo looked at the two attacks, assessing which one was the most dangerous. He brought his sword up, deflecting the three blasts of Harribel's attack, and bringing his hand up to block Stark's cero.

Stark cursed internally, it seemed he was outclassed if he didn't release, "Lily, come out." he said.

Ichigo raised an eyebrow as the arrancar he had sensed came out of hiding, revealing herself to be a child-like arrancar, with green hair, she landed next to Stark, kicking him in the shin, "You're getting your ass whooped, Stark, won't you try a bit?!" she yelled.

"Can't you see? I am trying, that's why I called you, we need to release." he said, to which Lily's eyes widened, before she nodded.

Stark put his hand on Lily's head, "Kick About, Los Lobos." he said.

A massive surge of reiatsu, bigger than Harribel's, surrounded the two, quickly dying down to reveal Stark, in his released form.

"Guns? I thought that was an american thing." Ichigo said, his tone amused. Seemingly not caring for the reiatsu Stark was releasing.

Stark raised an eyebrow in confusion, although he put it in the back of mind, bringing both his guns up, "Cero Metralleta." he said as seemingly thousands of ceros were released.

Ichigo raised his eyebrows, knowing this attack would actually hurt, although he was able to dodge, he looked back, the ceros had followed him, 'Oh shit!' were his last thoughts before he was engulfed by the ceros.

Stark and Harribel stared into the smoke from the blast, still on their guard.

Both their eyes widened however, as they sensed a massive amount of reiatsu building up inside the smoke, almost forcing Harribel on her knees, while Stark was starting to sweat.

"That was a good one." they heard as the smoke cleared, revealing a bruised and cut up Ichigo, covered by a thin layer of black and white reiatsu, "Not good enough though." he continued, building his reiatsu up some more.

He brought his own sword up, so much reiatsu building up around him that even Stark was struggling, "Claim the light as your own, Zangetsu."

And so Zangetsu did.

It seemed as if all the light, which, arguably, there wasn't much in Hueco Mundo, was going towards Ichigo, forcing everybody to look at him. Stark, Harribel, Ulquiorra, along with most other hollows, would have likened him to the moon of Hueco Mundo, lighting up the endless plains, ridding them of their fears.

Although that didn't mean the two Espada weren't scared, it wasn't hard to tell they were completely outclassed.

Ichigo walked towards them slowly, stopping in front of them, the black and white flames of his reiatsu licking around him, "Why do you follow Aizen?" he asked.

The two blinked, anticipating death, although Stark answered first, "I was lonely, as a hollow, I completely outclassed all the others, killing them when I walked in their vicinity. Aizen rid me of that loneliness. And I respect his strength to an extent." he explained.

Ichigo nodded, turning towards Harribel, who had to resists squirming under his stare, Stark rose an eyebrow seeing that, "I respect his strength, and I was able to live a peaceful life with my fracciones in Las Noches." she said.

Ichigo nodded again, turning back towards Stark, "Tell me, Stark. Do you think Aizen will be able to cure that loneliness forever? Do you think he considers you a friend, or even an ally? Can you tell me he won't abandon you in a moment's notice?" Ichigo asked.

Stark scoffed, shaking his head negatively, "No, I know for a fact he doesn't care about any of us. But it's better than nothing." he replied.

Harribel's eyes widened, she seemed to think the man had cared about them, although her expression turned resigned the more she thought about it.

Ichigo turned his gaze towards Harribel again, who this time did squirm, "And you, Harribel. How long do you think that peaceful life is going to last? You know as well as I do that Aizen is going to war with Soul Society in four months, do you really think that war will be easy? That none of your fracciones lives may be lost? That Aizen won't kill you too, or your fracciones, in a moment's notice?" he asked.

She looked down, knowing he was right, "No, the war will be bloody, and if any of us lose a fight, Aizen will probably kill us himself." she replied.

Ichigo nodded, "And finally, do you really think I couldn't kill Aizen on my own? You say you respect his strength, yet he is weak, forced to use cowardly tactics such as illusions and betrayals to get ahead, along with stepping over members of his own army, his allies. Whose strength do you respect more, mine or his?" he questioned, being sure to raise his reiatsu again, the same way he had with Ulquiorra.

"Yours." they both answered at the same time. The same thoughts that had gone through Ulquiorra going through their own.

"And who would you rather follow? Me or him?" he questioned again.

"You." they replied, bowing down.

"Don't bow." he said, to which they sat back up, "Ulquiorra told me he saw a king in me, while he saw a dictator in Aizen. Is that what you see as well?" he asked, to which they nodded.

"As hollows, we search for somebody, something, that will rid us of our fears, that is what you do. Your ressureccion is a primary example of that. You are like the moon of Hueco Mundo, ridding us of our fears." Harribel said respectfully.

'What the fuck? When did she come up with something so poetic? And why me?' Ichigo thought, liking the situations he was being put in less and less.

"Yeeaahh, sure." Ichigo said tentatively, "Ulquiorra, you can come out now."

The Espada left the spot from where he had been watching the fight, landing next to Stark and Harribel, "I'm guessing you were in on this the entire time?" Stark asked, crossing his arms.

Ulquiorra simply nodded, turning back to Ichigo, "What shall we do now, master?" he asked.

Ichigo scowled behind his mask, "Don't call me master, call me Ichigo, that's my name." he started, "I want you guys to go back to Las Noches and say you defeated me. Go back to living your normal lives until Aizen starts his attack on Soul Society, when that happens I'll come in contact with you guys." he told them, "Now leave, you shouldn't stay here any longer than you need to."

They nodded, disappearing in a blur of sonido, leaving Ichigo alone, once again.

He sighed, sitting down, looking up to the ever present light of the moon, all the while deactivating his ressureccion.

He put his head in the palm of his hand, thinking about nothing.

He enjoyed moments like these, they were relaxing, so relaxing in fact, that he ended up lying down, falling asleep.

"Whoaah, look, there's somebody here!" he vaguely heard a voice say in his sleep.

"Is he dead?" the childish voice said, poking at him in his semi-conscious state.

Ichigo scowled internally, opening his eyes and glaring at the sky, although he didn't see the sky when he opened his eyes.

He saw a childish face, with big, hazel eyes, green hair, and a hollow-like mask on top of it's head, although it was cracked.

The child gasped dramatically, "Oh! He's alive!" it said excitedly, "My name's Nel Tu Odelschwanck! What's yours?"

Ichigo sat up groggily, forcing the child to move out of the way, "What the fuck is your name?"

* * *

 **That's another chapter boys.**

 **Sorry for how short it is, although at this point this is the average length for them, deal with it, I guess.**

 **As I said, I'm on vacation now, so there'll probably be more chapters for a bit.**

 **Thanks for reading.**


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16: The beginning of an end.

 **Alright, five days late on the update but that's because my internet's busted, can't do much about that. Sorry I guess.**

 **Anyways, the reception for last chapter was very low, although it wasn't bad, I only got like 5 reviews, which is somewhat discouraging... oh well.**

 **Out of the couple reviews I got last chapter most of them were about the two OC characters that I could add, I still don't know if I will do that, although I don't think I will. Don't get your hopes up but also don't get hopes down.**

 **That's all I really have to say so without further ado...**

 **LEGO!**

"Talking"

'Thinking'

 **"Demon/Hollow talking"**

 **'Demon/Hollow thinking'**

 _"Spirit Talking"_

 _'Spirit thinking'_

 **Disclaimer: Don't own Bleach.**

* * *

 **Chapter 16: The beginning of an end.**

 **4 months later...**

"Ugh..." Ichigo groaned, being forced to chase after Nel, who had stolen his sword for her infamous 'game', again, "Give me my damn sword back!" he yelled, almost getting her, although she managed to narrowly dodge him.

"You'll have to catch me if you want to get it, Itsygo!" she giggled, sprinting off.

Ichigo stopped, sighing as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

This had basically been his last 4 months. Ever since he had met Stark and Harribel, after which he had met Nel and her three minions, which he couldn't remember the name of, and they for some reason had decided to tag with him, after they were sure he wasn't an 'evil soul reaper'.

He normally would have brushed them off, not being bothered to have to carry around four dead weights, especially when they were as annoying as they were.

But after he had felt Nel's reiatsu, he had decided against doing that.

It was odd, she was an arrancar, but with the maturity level of an infant, on top of that, she had a crack on her mask, that emitted a stupidly strong reiatsu, it just didn't make any sense.

His only guess was that she had been injured somehow, and that the crack on her mask was the result of her injury. He could have left it off at that, but since it leaked so much reiatsu, he had decided to keep them for now, if only to discover what the big deal was.

It only confirmed his theory that something was off when he looked at two of her minions, dude who's name starts with a P and dude who's name starts with a B. Both their expression had been one of sadness and guilt when Nel had first introduced herself to him, that expression coming back at times, when they would simply stare at Nel, thinking that Ichigo didn't notice.

He had decided they would tell him when they felt like it. But it had been four months, and with the whole Aizen thing coming up, he wanted the case closed.

So, deciding to stop playing games with Nel, he flashed stepped towards her, shocking the infant as the sword she was dragging along the sand was taken from her hands, "Game over." he said.

She pouted, and would have no doubt started whining had Ichigo not spoken first, "Do you know where those two idiots are? I need to talk to them." he asked.

Her eyes lit up, "Oh! You mean, Pesche and Dondochakka!" she guessed instantly, almost as if she likened those two names to 'Two idiots'.

'Wait, his name starts with a D?' Ichigo thought, 'Oh yeah right, it's the snail's name that starts with a B... I think at least.'.

She continued talking, unaware of Ichigo's confusion, "I think they're over there." she pointed to her right, over at some sand dunes, "What do you need to talk to them for?" she asked.

Ichigo shrugged, "Eh, just need to ask them a question." he said, flash-stepping towards where she had pointed, and finding said two idiots, plopped in the sand.

"I'm telling you! Pineapple does not belong on pizza!" dude who's name starts with a P said dramatically.

"Umm, I think it does. Just like me, pineapple is like the dots on my skin, and I'm the pizza." dude who's name starts with a D replied.

'What the fuck?' Ichigo thought, resisting the temptation to rub his hand against his forehead, "Who gives a shit?" he interrupted.

They jumped, startled, "Oh Ichigo-kun! I didn't see you there!" P said.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Listen, I'm not here for small talk. I just want to ask a question." he told them, his tone direct.

"Oh. Uh, of course, what would you like to know?" P asked hesitantly.

"What's the deal with Nel's mask?" he questioned, shocking the two, who immediately jumped back and started whispering to themselves in what they obviously thought was an attempt at stealth.

"Do you think we should tell him?" D whispered.

"I don't know. I think he deserves to know, but any monster who thinks pineapple can go on pizza isn't worthy of my trust. We should lie to him." P replied.

"Yes, good idea. Wait, what?" D started, before he was interrupted by Ichigo, who's left eyebrow had started to twitch.

"I can hear you you idiots." he said, his tone annoyed.

P scratched the back of his head awkwardly, "Well, yes. I guess we should tell you..." he paused for a second, before sighing, his whole body deflating.

He breathed back in, going back to his normal height, although his body was held straighter this time, his whole demeanour had changed to something Ichigo would have never expected from either of them... seriousness.

"I'm guessing you know about Las Noches, Espada and Fraccione, right?" Ichigo nodded, ignoring the surprisingly serious tone of P.

"Well, you see, long ago, Nel was an Espada, the tres Espada, and we were her fracciones." he started, continuing when he saw Ichigo's expression hadn't changed, "It was peaceful, until the ocatava Espada, Nnoitra Gilga, who held a grudge against Nel for being powerful, even though she was a female, decided to attack her. I'm sure you can already guess who would win that fight, but Nnoitra played dirty, attacking Nel when she wasn't expecting it. He gave her that injury, he then got rid of our masks, and threw all three of us out of Las Noches. She was then reduced to the child state you've been seeing her in. We decided to protect her after that, opting for appearances like these, in case seeing us the way we looked before would awaken her older memories." P explained.

Ichigo nodded, "Yeah, I get it. Alright, that explains a lot, thanks for telling me." he said, turning around and walking back towards where Nel was.

"Wait!" Pesche exclaimed, "What are you going to do with that explanation?" he asked.

Ichigo shrugged, turning back to face them, "I guess I'll heal her. Having another super strong hollow by my side would help." he told them, disappearing after that, not leaving them any time to argue.

He reappeared in front of Nel, who was sat down in the sand, drawing random figures in it, "Hey Nel." Ichigo stated.

Nel looked up, hey eyes going wide, "Itsygo!" she yelled, jumping onto him.

Ichigo grumbled, grabbing her and setting her back on the sand, "Listen, I'm gonna do something you might find weird. I just need you to promise me you won't move while I'm doing this, alright?" 'God, that sounds so wrong.' Ichigo thought.

Nel nodded rapidly, eyes wide, "Alright Itsygo!" she exclaimed.

Ichigo sighed internally, 'It's a good thing you're trusting me, and not some creep...' he thought, drawing his sword, "Claim the light as your own, Zangetsu." he said, going into his ressureccion form.

Nel watched with wide eyes as Ichigo transformed, "Remember, don't move. I'm not going to harm you." he said, putting his clawed hand where the crack in her mask was.

She complied, not moving as Ichigo started. Although a couple minutes later she couldn't help but voice her thoughts, "Umm, Itsygo... this feels a little wei-" she was cut off as a cloud of pink smoke erupted around her.

Ichigo withdrew his hand, letting the smoke dissipate, 'Huh, I guess that worked.' he thought, going back into his normal form.

"Ichigo!" he heard a feminine voice, similar to that of Nel's, although this one was more mature, yell, as the smoke dissipated, revealing a woman, who Ichigo couldn't really distinguish, since she was jumping at him.

She landed on him, hugging him tightly, "Thank you so much!" she exclaimed.

'I love my life...' Ichigo thought, greatly enjoying the hug, mainly since he was being hugged in between Nel's amazing, as seemed to be the norm, breasts, 'I'm gonna stop questioning why all the woman I seem to encounter are so hot...'

After what, to Ichigo, wasn't long enough, Nel finally got off him, letting him stand back up and get a good look at her.

'Okay... who did this? Like actually...' he thought, staring at Nel, who, like seemingly all women he had been meeting, was stupidly hot, 'Whatever man...' he shrugged mentally.

"Pesche! Dondochakka!" she yelled, her attention turning to her two 'brothers'.

"Oh Nel-sama! We missed you so much!" Pesche exclaimed, seeming to greatly enjoy her hug.

Ichigo let the three have their weird reunion, happy he didn't have to be a part of it.

"Y'all done?" he interrupted them after several minutes.

They turned back to him, looking like they had forgotten he was there, "Oh Ichigo! I had almost forgotten about you!" Nel yelled, apparently having forgotten the first thing she had done when she had came back.

Ichigo stopped her, "No, no, it's fine, you didn't forget about me." he said, holding her off, "Listen, I get you're happy about being back and all. But I need to talk to you about something more serious." he said.

Her expression straightened at that, her face becoming serious, "It's about Aizen, isn't it?" she stated.

"Yeah, I need to know who's side you're gonna be taking, since you used to be with Aizen, and I'm gonna be fighting against him." he told her.

She didn't even hesitate, answering immediately, "Your side."

Ichigi blinked, "Really? You're that sure about it?" he asked.

She nodded, "Yes, I'm absolutely sure, Aizen was willing to let Nnoitra do this to me, without any repercussions, he's no king. Besides, you're more fun than him, more powerful than him. It's no comparison really." she shrugged.

"Alright then, what about those two?" Ichigo asked, pointing at P and D, "Aizen's making his move really soon, I don't think you'd want them in the fight."

"We'll stay here!" P said, all too enthusiastically, "We would only disrupt you guys in a fight! Just leave us here, we'll be fine!" he continued.

Ichigo sweatdropped, "Alright then, that solves the problem."

"How do you know when Aizen is going to strike though?" Nel asked, "Do you have spies in Aizen's army?"

Ichigo shook his head no, "Well, I don't really have spies in his army, but I do have 3 Espada who I managed to turn to my side. Although we won't be getting any intel from them since we're gonna meet in Soul Society. I was planning on sneaking into Soul Society. Although we will have to be really careful. If Aizen realises we're there things might go south." he stated.

Nel nodded, "When were you planning on leaving?" she questioned.

Ichigo shrugged, "Aizen should be starting his attack on Soul Society soon, so I was thinking of leaving in a couple days."

"Alright then. I'm coming with you." she declared.

Ichigo raised an eyebrow, "Really? Why? It's not like I've done anything to warrant that." he asked.

She looked at him weirdly, "What are you talking about? You protected me when I was in my weakened form, like Pesche and Dondochakka. You didn't even have any obligation to. As a hollow, most would have killed me off. I owe you my life. Add on to it that you're obviously stronger than me, and you're basically my master." she said.

Ichigo opened his mouth, cocking his head to the side in questioning manner, "What..." he whispered, "Whatever." he shook his head, "Just don't call me master." he told her.

She nodded, her bubbly attitude returning, "So, when are we leaving?" she asked enthusiastically.

Ichigo looked at his wrist, even though there was no watch on it, "Right now." he told her, smirking.

* * *

 _ **Soul Society... 3 months ago...**_

"A-Aizen-taicho!"

The scream of the petite fifth division lieutenant echoed loud and clear throughout the Seireitei, waking up some with how ear-piercing it was.

It didn't take long before most of the Gotei's lieutenants, who were all heading towards their meeting, arrived at the scene, wondering what had happened.

Which wasn't that hard to figure out, seeing as that the body of the fifth division's captain, Aizen Sosouke, was hanging from a wall, bloodied and mangled, with a sword running through his torso.

His lieutenant, Hinamori Momo, simply stared at the body in shock, with the newly arrived lieutenants doing the same.

By the end of the day, the entirety of the Gotei had been informed of the tragedy, yet no suspects were found.

And after three months of living in the constant fear of not knowing who you could trust, it had made the Seireitei an eerie place to be in, the stench of suspicion all too present amongst it's officers.

Nobody trusted each other any more, mainly the higher ups, as nobody of an unseated rank could have taken out a captain, but then again, you never knew who could have been misleading everybody. For all they knew, the killer could have been some random unseated officer that they talked to everyday.

First the death of Ichigo Kurosaki, then the death of a captain.

But Yamamoto didn't worry about any of that. Something felt off about the entire situation, he felt he was being mislead, at this point, he only trusted his instinct, and his instinct told him both of them were alive. So no, he wasn't worrying about that, there was no point to anyways, he wouldn't get answers.

No, he was worrying about the Gotei's reaction to this entire fiasco.

They were all, for lack of a better word, clueless. It didn't even stop at the lieutenants, everybody short of the most senior of captains, like himself, Unohana, Jushiro, Kyoraku, his lieutenant Chojiro, and more than likely Isshin, since even though he wasn't an official captain, he was one of the oldest, were all clueless.

Some, like Byakuya, hid it behind cold stares, making themselves look, to any lesser person, like they were calm, and had the situation under control.

The other captains did the same, all trying to appear like they knew what was going on, like any captain should.

But it didn't slip past his eyes, or Unohana's, or Jushiro's, or any of the elder Shinigami.

Their fear, their indecisiveness, their hesitation.

Those weren't the qualities of a captain.

He sighed, it wasn't something one could blame on them either. They hadn't been raised in any particularly special environment, they had lived a normal life, for the most part, but none of them had fully experienced what it was like to manage an army, especially during times when there was discord among it.

None of them had experienced cold, hard, _war._

Of course, the situation hadn't come to that yet, and he had a feeling it wouldn't for a while, but his point was still valid.

What he feared more than anything was what would happen if they were to be thrust into a war.

Even if it didn't escalate, the simple feeling of apprehension, knowing that at any point in time you could be thrust into a battle for either your life, the life of your friend, the life of an army, or all three, that was enough to make or break a person.

It wouldn't do well for all his younger captains to freeze up at the moment when the Gotei needed them the most.

And even though he didn't like it, even though he wished that something like that wasn't a quality that a captain should need, even though he wished everything could be peaceful, life wasn't that easy, and at any point in time it might happen.

That was why, even though it pained him to even think about it, he wanted to be able to test his troops, not with a drill, that wouldn't bring about the raw urgency and fear needed, but with an actual war. It didn't have to be a long one, nor one where they suffered casualties, he just needed to be sure his captains knew what they were in for, that they wouldn't break the second adversity pointed itself at them.

Once they actually felt all the emotions that he and the other elder Shinigami had, only then could he really have full confidence in his troops.

He sighed, the chances of a war happening in general were pretty low, which was a good thing, but the chances of a war that while being short and low on casualties, was at the same time a good test for his captains, were even lower.

Oh well, he thought, if worst did come to worst he could always take the situation into his own hands.

His thoughts however, were interrupted, as he felt a large disturbance in the sky.

He smirked to himself as he looked up at it, seeing a giant garganta, along with several hollows, that felt especially powerful, walking out of it.

Maybe the chances of a war happening weren't so low after all.

* * *

A white coat flapped, seemingly out of it's own will, as it's owner took off, walking at a brisk pace towards their destination.

It only took a few seconds for the person to arrive where they were headed, after which they quickly bowed down, after all, when in the presence of one's god, what else can you do?

"Your Majesty, it has been observed that Aizen Sosouke has made his first move against the Soul Society. How shall we proceed?" the person, a young man, with pale skin and long blonde hair, asked.

The person in question, 'His Majesty', smirked at his right hand's statement. Oh how he had longed to hear those words, to hear the words that signified the beginning of the end.

The man stood up, his imposing stature casting a shadow over his subordinate, no, his follower, "Thank you for telling me this, Haschwalth. To answer your question, we will not make any move for now. I am excited to see how low the Shinigami will fall, simply because of their own conflict, before we fully destroy them." the man said.

His now named follower, Haschwalth, looked up, "With all due respect Your Majesty, I understand your wishes, but if Aizen Sosouke manages to succeed in his plans, we will not be able to crush the Shinigami with our own hands, and while I understand that that is not your goal in the long run, it is something we have all been looking forward too." he hesitantly said.

If possible, the man's smirk widened, "Do not worry, Aizen Sosuke will get nowhere. And if Yamamoto has stooped so low that a simple child like Aizen can defeat him, then my victory would have been sour anyways. No, Aizen will simply warm them up, make them think they are strong. It will make it all the more pleasing when we crush them, seeing their crestfallen expression. Don't you think?" the king asked, although the question was painfully rhetorical.

Haschwalth gulped, the more time he spent around his Majesty these days, the more disturbed he was by him, "Yes, Your Majesty. Of course." he said, trying his best to hide his hesitation from his tone, all the while hiding his face with his deep bow.

"Stand up." Yhwach ordered.

Haschwalth blinked, steeling himself as he did as instructed, had he seen through him? "Yes, Your Majesty?" he asked.

The man put a hand on his shoulder, to which Haschwalth had to refrain from flinching in surprise, and a bit of fear, "Gather the Sternritters for a meeting. The time is soon to come, the time we have all been waiting for." he told him, turning around and sitting back in his throne.

Haschwalth blinked internally, before nodding and turning around, swiftly exiting the throne room.

Soon enough, he had gathered all the Sternritters, and they were all in the meeting room, waiting for their Majesty to appear.

The doors opened, revealing him. They all bowed quickly, and with a quick shout of "Your Majesty!", the meeting had commenced.

"My children," he started, "The time for our revenge against the Shinigami is soon to come, and your patience will be rewarded. As we speak, the traitor Aizen Sosuke is starting his rebellion against Soul Society. This works in our favour, as while he might prove a challenge to the Shinigami, he will be defeated, after which their confidence will be as high as ever, making their defeat at our hands all the more enjoyable. So, all I have to say to you today is to ready yourselves. Train. Train harder than you ever have. We have all looked forward to this moment, we have all looked forward to the day when we would take our revenge on the wretched Shinigami that tried to slaughter us all, that killed our families, our children. I look forward to bringing justice to our fallen heroes, and I know you do as well. That was all I had to say, you are dismissed." the man said, adding fake sentiment to his voice, you had to rally the troops somehow.

His followers all gazed at him in awe, some sniffling and wiping tears away, and with anther quick shout of, "Your Majesty!", they were all gone.

* * *

 **Alright, alright, I'm gonna clear a couple things here.**

 **I don't know if it has been visible in my writing over the past couple chapters, but I feel like this story has really been lacking an identity for a while. I don't like how I'm writing this anymore, and all the chapters I've been putting are feeling more and more forced, and I feel like they are getting worst, hence why they are so short.**

 **Basically, I'm disappointing with myself in how I've written this story, that doesn't mean I'm quitting it, it means I'm going to be taking it slower, because the reason why I think I've started taking less pleasure in writing this is because I've starting to force myself into doing it, making it more of a chore because of the deadlines I've set for myself. So the updates for this story are going to be a lot less consistent now, I'll write when I feel like it, when I come up with a good idea, when I'm bored. Unfortunately that means updates could be coming a lot, and it also means updates might never come, I wouldn't be surprised if I ended up taking month long breaks simply because I never got up to writing, although I wouldn't be surprised if there are weeks where I end up releasing 2 chapters as well.**

 **Sorry for my 'incompetence' if you will, this has just really gotten to feel more like a chore than anything, hopefully now that I'm writing when I feel inspired too the quality difference will be noticeable.**

 **Thanks for reading.**


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